


Remnant's Tail

by Kchlu



Category: Dragon Ball, RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-08-08 07:19:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 149,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16424891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kchlu/pseuds/Kchlu
Summary: Goku has been mysteriously transported to the world of Remnant, even so, he will train himself to be the strongest, even in this new land.





	1. Monkey Boy

We all know the story of Son Goku, the boy who went on a journey with his friend Bulma to find the dragon balls and the subsequent events that came with that fated encounter. However, imagine if that never occurred. Would history be changed for another world?

* * *

"Alright grandpa, I'm gonna go out and get me some grub to eat, see ya later."

The boy standing praying to a strange orange ball with four stars had spiky black hair pointed in every direction, wearing a blue gi with red wristbands on both his arms, a white obi that is tied in a bow over his waist, dark blue kung fu shoes, a short pole over his shoulder and a tail on his back. He came out of the hut and noticed something strange. Why did the entire forest changed?

"That's weird, the forest changed, and I can't smell any of the animals anymore. It's all weird and smelly," Goku's stomach then rumbled and he rubbed his stomach.

"Oh well, can't think about that, gotta find food before it gets dark," Thus, the young boy set out and ran downhill in search of food. What the boy wasn't expecting was an event that will marked the beginning of his new life here.

* * *

Meanwhile, a young girl with red hair was running around at the backyard of a small house being chased by slightly older girl with blond hair. While running around, she turned her head and faced against her chaser.

"You can't catch me, Yang! I'm way too fast," As if to make her point, she sprinted even faster.

"Oh yeah, Ruby, just give me a minute," Yang said as she runs with more vigor.

Beside the two there, there was also a man with dark hair that spiked backwards. He was lying on a hammock, with a magazine on top of his face. He lifted the magazine off his face and glanced at the two girls, shaking his head. As he continued to relax, a loud howl was heard.

"ARH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Startled, Ruby and Yang stopped running due to the sudden noise, Qrow stood himself up, gesturing the kids to come to his side and he picked up his sword that was resting on the tree. Ruby and Yang ran up to their uncle and stated their worry.

"Alright, you two, just get inside with your old man, got it?" Qrow pointed his right thumb towards the door to the inside of the house.

"No way, uncle Qrow, I'm sure we can help, right Yang?" Ruby looked at her sister for comfirmation.

"No, he's right, c'mon Rubs, let's get inside," Yang then dragged Ruby inside while Ruby had blanks looks in her eyes and was waving both her arms up and down.

Once the two were inside, Qrow was about to go inside himself but then he heard footsteps approaching. Qrow was cautious and he was ready to fight if he had to but surprisingly, what came out of the bushes was a little boy with a tail, a faunus from what he can see.

"Man, why are all the wolves here black? That's a new one, they don't look very tasty though," mumbled Goku in a low voice. Once he turned his head around, he was surprised so to speak.

"Who are you, you kinda look like me but way taller, even taller than grandpa, oh I know, grandpa Gohan told me once, you're human right? Then again, the only human I know is me and my grandpa."

Before Qrow could utter a word, a pack of beowolves came out of the forest and was quickly encircling the spiky haired boy. Qrow, was for a word, a bit startled, I mean, a 10-something year old just came out of the forest and he was sure no one lives near here beside Taiyang and the kids. And to put the cherry on top, he brought a pack of beowolves wth him. Wonderful, he decided he really need a drink after this.

"Hey kid, not to spoil your oh-so amazing discovery on human biology or anything, but isn't there a bunch of beowolves behind you?"

"Bee-what? Oh you mean these guys, they didn't seem very tasty so I just went past and ignored them and then, they just went after me, all I want is just some food, I tried biting one of them, but it was yucky and tasted like rocks, bleh!"

Qrow had a deadpanned look in response, "You know, I don't even want to know, let's just get this over with. Hey kid! Come over here so you don't get hurt while I'm fighting these things."

Goku had a confident grin on his face when responding back, "It's alright, I don't think these guys are stronger than what I usually fight, I can take them," Goku then went into a martial art stance, eyeing the beowolves and waiting them to strike.

"No, seriously kid, get in here, now!"

The beowolves all rushed in to strike Goku. Goku readied his left arm, and he yelled "Rock!" and punch the beowolf in the middle with all his strength. As the blow connects, the beowolf was sent flying back into the forest. The beowolf on Goku's right swiped at him but he avoided the attack with a backstep and extended both his middle fingers of his right arm to poke one of the beowolves in the eye, "Scissor!" The beowolf was momentarily stunned and Goku open his left palm, extended his hand yelling "Paper!", slamming the beowolf's head to the ground. Just as he was done, he turn his back to face against the remaining beowolves, one of them decided to pounce on him but just as it was about to hit Goku, its head was cleanly cut off and roll off the ground.

There, stood Qrow as he was holding his longsword over his shoulder, having a smug grin on his face.

"Ok, guess I was wrong, still, might as well make this quicker, am I right kid?" Qrow really, and I mean really wanted to get this over with and have a drink.

"Sure, I want to eat something though…" Goku took out his power pole and readied himself as the remaining beowolves begins to encircle them.

Qrow quickly took a step forward and slashed four of the beowolves in half, and proceeded to stab one of the beowolves and transform his gun to shoot its inside. With a loud bang, the grimm was no more.

"That was easy, shoulda taken the kid's side, ah whatever, he's fine, right?" As Qrow turned his head toward, he was greeted with a curious sight.

"Power pole EXTEND!" The power pole extended itself to be at least as long as 300 centimeter. Goku held it up high and hit all the remaining beowolves in one fell swoop. As Goku was swinging it, the beowolves were all huddled together and hit a nearby tree. After the power pole shrunk back to its original length, Goku strapped it on to his back and walk up to Qrow.

"Damn, kid, not bad, so, you wanna come in with me inside?" Before Goku responded, a huge rumble could be heard.

"Can I have some food if I go in?" Goku's hunger had overwritten whatever thought process of his situation here, only food registered in his mind. Qrow couldn't help but chuckled in response.

"Sure, why not, it's not like foods coming from me, come on ummmm, what's your name again, kid?"

Goku scratched his head for a few seconds, then he put on an innocent smile.

"My name's Son Goku, what's yours?"

Qrow had a strong feeling that the faunus kid here resembles Ruby in a way. At least he isn't dangerous, just strong for his age.

"Qrow, not gonna tell you my last name, though," Goku had a puzzled look before coming to a realization, well, a realization that only makes sense to him.

"Crow, you mean those black birds I ate once? I mean they were good but not enough meat, I prefer fish and bear meat," All Qrow did was shaking his head at that statement.

"You have a strange appetite, kid," as Goku and Qrow walk back to the house, the sky was quickly getting dark. For the upcoming days, the house will certainly become much livelier.


	2. Innocence Hurts

"Qrow, who exactly did you bring in again?"

Taiyang Xiao Long was a simple man, having two kids from different mothers, his wife's drunken brother living here, a guy who lives on an island with his family, a teacher at Signal Academy, you know, as simple as it gets for a man like him. But what stood before him was a creature, no, a monster with an insatiable appetite that could potentially give him financial problems if the boy was with them in the near future.

"Calls himself Goku, weird name, am I right?" Qrow himself was sitting on one corner of the kitchen, having a drink to himself.

Everyone was sitting around the kitchen table, eating their dinner. There was one particular person on the room who was eating loudly and wildly.

Goku, for a lack of a better word, was swallowing everything that was on the table, from the plates of fish meat to the plates of rice and other types of dish in front of him.

Yang could only stare wide-eyed at the amount the boy was eating beside her and who can blame her, this guy was eating way more than anyone she knew at Signal. She really wondered if all faunus were like this or it's because the monkey boy here was one of the more special cases.

Ruby, on the other hand, was jumping up and down, excited so to speak. Uncle Qrow was the one who brought him here and plus, Goku looks as excitable as she is, he was zipping around once he got into the house and he never stopped until Uncle Qrow held him up by the collar and sat him here. Maybe Goku here knows a lot of bed time stories, hopefully ones with happy endings, I mean he looks way different than any other kids here at Signal, even the faunus, she was really hoping that was the case.

After several burps and tens of empty plates stacked on the table, Goku was slumped on the wooden chair, rubbing his stomach in a circular motion with a satisfied grin.

"Man, that was great, I haven't eaten anything that great in a while. Thanks, by the way, for letting me eat here."

"You sure can eat, monkey boy." Yang couldn't help it, Uncle Qrow brought him here for the night and if there's anything that Yang learnt in her ten years of living here, was that Uncle Qrow will always bring something interesting, or someone interesting in this case. Plus, the fact that the boy beside her managed to beat up some beowolves before coming here and has weird spiky hair to boot, just begs for her to tease him.

"My name's not monkey boy, it's Son Goku, you're not very bright, are you?"

"Says the guy who can't even count after eleven, even Ruby can count better than that and she's eight." She was shocked, to say the least, when they asked about his age.

"Counting is hard, anyway, are you human, you don't look much like me or tall like Qrow over there."

"Of course I am, I'm a girl, and you're a boy!" Yang said, as if stating the obvious. Too bad the person asking the question was Goku.

Goku was scratching his neck, not knowing how to respond, "What's the difference, you just look softer and rounder, sorta thinner too."

Before Yang could even respond, Qrow did it for her, "Well, the difference here, kid, is that they have a pair of round curvaceous melons on their chest. That, and they don't have what we big boys have between our legs."

Ruby yelped in disgust. "Eeewwww, gross, Uncle Qrow why?"

"Qrow! You better have a good explanation for telling Ruby that!" Taiyang was miffed that Qrow told Ruby that, she was only eight years old, way too young to know about stuff like this.

"She's eight now, better to learn it now than never." Qrow, being a bit drunk at this point, was nonchalant about all this.

As the two continued to argue, Goku got up from his chair and walk up to Yang. Yang was confused for a moment, that was before something unexpected happen. Goku was patting Yang's chest repeatedly, Yang's cheeks were as red as Ruby's hair at that moment.

"So, girls have two butts in front of them instead of a tail like mine?" Goku then lifted his right leg up and was about to test Qrow's second theory. But before he could do that, a fist came straight right at him. Before Goku realized it, his vision turned into a blur as he was thrown to the air and crashed into the wall, leaving a small hole on it and his head stuck in it.

"Owh, that's gotta hurt." Ruby winced as she looked at the scene before her.

"That's what you get, you perverted monkey!" Yang's eyes were glowing red, holding her right fist up, shaking involuntarily. Good thing Goku didn't test it on Ruby.

"Yang Xiao Long! What did I say about destroying things in the house?" Sure, Taiyang was mad that a strange boy tried touching one of his precious daughters but she really didn't need to damage the wall here. He paid good money for those!

Ruby was worried about her new friend? No, maybe new neighbour, yeah definitely new neighbour as she tried to pull Goku's head out of the wall. After getting to the hole, she noticed Goku's tail, she decided to pull on it since it would make it easier to pull him out, but once she tighten her grip on it, Goku let out a sharp cry.

"Please don't pull my tail, it hurts a lot when anyone grabs it."

Everyone in the room decided to take note of that particular weakness and put it in the back of their mind. After several attempts, Ruby let out a yelp as Goku was released from the hole and both of them were rolling off the floor.

Goku got up, rubbing his forehead "Ooowww, that really hurts, girls are stronger than I thought."

"Life lesson number one kid, don't mess with the opposite gender, unless you're me, of course," said Qrow as he held up his drink.

"Qrow!" Yet again, Taiyang was getting a bit miffed at Qrow's nonchalance of all this.

"Grandpa did always tell me to be as polite as possible to girls, I can see why, they're strong."

"Hey Goku, are you a faunus?" asked Ruby as she was curious about his tail.

"A fox?" He checked his body "No, I don't think so, I don't think foxes have a tail like mine."

"She means a faunus, you know, people with animal traits?" Yang said as she tried to mimicked cat ears using her hands.

Goku shook his head, "Nope, sorry, never heard of it, grandpa told me that all little boy have tails, and when they grow bigger, the tail falls off, so I'm sure I'm human, not this faunus thing."

"Kid, I hate to break it to ya, but what you basically describe is a faunus, minus the tail falling off thing."

"So, grandpa was wrong? Well, he was kinda weird after all, hehehehe." Goku was smiling at the revelation, not really caring about his newfound identity.

"That's not the point. Goku, was it, where's your parents?" Taiyang really wanted to have some word with this kid's parents, letting a child like him in the woods like that.

"Dunno, never seen them, all I had was grandpa Gohan ever since I was a baby," That statement made Qrow and Taiyang uneasy.

"Had, Goku?" Taiyang had to double check just to be sure.

"Yeah, grandpa got killed by a monster during the full moon."

"Monster? What are you talking about?" Taiyang was growing more uneasy by the second, he was worried about how Ruby would take this.

"Grandpa told me that a monster appears every time a full moon is up, so he always told me to stay inside. Next time I went out, all I saw was Grandpa's bloodstain and clothes on the ground."

The atmosphere turned tense as Ruby began to cry softly while Taiyang was rubbing her head affectionately. Yang was rubbing her left arm, feeling sorry for the guy. Qrow was gazing upward, as if reminiscing something from the past.

"It's alright." The words that came out of the boy's mouth snapped them out of their trance, "I bet Grandpa was having the time of his life, I'm sure he was smiling at the end, fighting such a powerful opponent. That's why, I want to be as strong as possible, maybe someday I'll be as strong as grandpa." The mood lighten as Goku put on his innocent smile.

"Ohhhh! I forgot!" Goku said as he had some sort of realization.

"What did you forget, monkey boy?"

"I left the four-star dragon balls in grandpa's house."

Qrow couldn't help but take a spit out of his drink, "Dragon's what?"

"The dragon ball, grandpa said if all seven dragon balls are gathered together, a wish can be granted, that's what my grandpa always told me, and it's my last memory of him."

"Heh, that sounds more like a fairy tale more than anything else." Then again, not all fairy tales are just that, legends.

"Maybe tomorrow, aren't you tired from all the running around you did today?" Taiyang might not have like Goku touching one of his daughters 'that' way but he did felt concerned of the boy because of his past.

"Yeah, I guess," Although Goku ate a bunch, he was still tired from running around trying to escape from those beowolves.

"Good, Yang, Ruby, bring him to your room and prepare a blanket and a pillow." Taiyang didn't like it, but he knew Goku was just an innocent boy even if he's already twelve.

"Sure, come on Rubs, and monkey boy, you better not do anything like what you did just now to Ruby, got it?" Since Yang felt bad for him, she didn't mind all that much. Unless the guy tried to do 'that' to Ruby, she's fine with it but rules have gotta be set.

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to try again," Goku may not be very bright, but even he can tell that's a dumb idea, unless he really wants to fight Yang, then it might be worth it.

As the three left, only Qrow and Taiyang were left in the kitchen. Both having serious expressions on their faces.

"So, what do you think about the kid's story?" After hearing the Goku's story, a lot of things just didn't add up for him.

"He wasn't lying throughout that entire conversation we just had." Taiyang was absolutely sure of that, the boy had the same kind of innocence that Ruby has.

"Yeah, that's the problem, not knowing his own heritage even though he's a faunus, the tail being his weakness and not just that, some mystical balls that grant wishes, never heard of that one."

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, everything should be clear after you go visit Goku's house."

"Me? What about you?" Qrow really didn't want to go to some old house in the middle of a forest, even if he was curious about the kid.

"I have the house to take care of, unlike a particular someone in this room here."

"Alright fine, wanna bet a few lien that your kids will follow him?" Qrow was sipping the last drops from his drink, he was feeling lucky at the moment.

"You're on."

* * *

The three kids were getting ready for bed, Yang and Ruby were lying on the bed while Goku was on the floor. Yang was about to read her daily stories to Ruby until her younger sister had other plans.

"Waiiiit! Goku, do you have any story from where you're from?" Ruby wanted to hear something different for once and plus, Goku probably knew tons of stories from his grandpa.

"Yeah, monkey boy, got anything interesting?" Yang was gonna give a story that her younger sister already heard before, but this seemed like a better idea.

"Huh, ummmmm, oh! I remember this one since grandpa told me this story once. It's about the demon king Piccolo, he was an evil person that tried to rule the world once, with his minions destroying cities left and right, no one was able to even stop him at the time."

Yang and Ruby was getting more interested as they waited for Goku to continue.

"One day, a martial artist master and his pupil went to face King Piccolo. The pupil was the first one to fight against Piccolo but he couldn't even touch him. During the fight, the pupil students was beaten to the ground, with the master left standing at the brink of death."

"What did he do next, did he pulled some sort of cool super ultra move to beat that Piccolo guy, did he, did he?" Ruby was really excited since she never heard this story before.

"Yeah, monkey boy, don't keep us in suspense."

"The master used a sealing move called the mafuba. Doing that, he was able to seal Demon King Piccolo in a container and the world returned to peace after that."

Before Goku could continue any further, he heard a small snore from Ruby.

"Guess she tuckered out, Rubs was always the first one to sleep when it comes to story time."

"But I wasn't finish, there's still more."

"How about this, monkey boy, I'll listen to the last part of that story, I mean, might as well, right?"

"Ok, well, even though the master won, using the mafuba killed him, leaving the student behind, the student dropped the container to the sea, so that King Piccolo will never return."

"Geez, I guess it was good that Ruby slept at that part," Yang rubbed Ruby softly as pulled the blanket over her younger sister.

"You really care about her, huh?" The scene before him reminded Goku of how Grandpa Gohan took care of him and it made him sleepy for some reason.

"Course I am, she's my little sister, after all. You know, Monk- Goku, I'm not gonna say sorry for earlier but after knowing that you're always like this, I'll just let bygones be bygones, okay?" Once she said that, she heard a loud snoring noise, and it was coming from Goku. Yang had nothing to say to that as she cuddled with Ruby and closed her eyes.


	3. Starting Point

"Haa!"

"Heeyaahhhh!"

Ruby was startled out of her sleep due to the shouts being heard in the morning, she got up and started to rub her eyes. As the shouts continued to be heard, Ruby turned her head to the source of the noise and saw Goku on the backyard of their house doing some kind of exercise.

* * *

Goku was practicing the martial art stances that his grandfather taught him over the years. He was repeating the motions, hoping he could get stronger. There was also the Turtle School Style but all Grandpa Gohan taught him was the rock-paper-scissor technique and the Kamehameha wave. Just as Goku was thinking to attempt the Kamehameha wave, his train of thought was stopped by the voices that came out from inside the house.

Ruby was waving her right hand while running out of the house, with Yang behind her trying to straighten her hair.

"Morning. What cha doing there, Goku?" Ruby was feeling energized since she got a good amount of sleep yesterday.

"Morning, Ruby, Yang, I'm just practicing some stances. I wanna get stronger so I gotta practice every day, but I don't feel like I'm getting any better though."

Yang suddenly had an idea, and since he wanted to get stronger, this would be a win-win situation for both of them, "Is that so? Then, you wanna fight me later when I get the hang of my aura and get my first weapon?"

"Aww, but why? I kinda wanna fight right now," Goku regarded Yang as a strong fighter, even if she was one of the only people he met.

"Because, even if I don't want to admit it, but there's no way I can win against you right now," He did beat up some beowolves after all, she wouldn't stand much of a chance.

"Why? You were pretty strong yesterday when you hit me," He really felt that punch when she hit him to the wall yesterday.

"Yang's pretty strong when she gets mad, that's how she beat up the boys at Patch, even the ones from school."

"School? What's that, is that some kind of food?" Goku said as he scratched his head.

The two sisters both shared a look to each other before shrugging, "Well, you did grow up in the woods, can't say that's surprising."

"Dad said school is a place where you learn stuff," Ruby answered honestly.

"Learn stuff? That's boring," Goku really couldn't get into stuff like studying.

"By the way, where's your dad and uncle?" When he was still inside the house this morning, he couldn't find Taiyang and he saw Qrow sleeping on the couch.

"Dad said he had something to take care of for the day, while Uncle Qrow's still sleeping on the couch."

"Darn, I really want to head out right now." Goku said he swung his tail left and right.

At the mere mention of Qrow, Yang had a mischievous grin on her face. "Come over here you two, I got a plan to wake him up." The two got closer as Yang whispered something to both of their ears.

* * *

Qrow was sleeping comfortably on the couch, just like any old weekend. That is, if it was a regular weekend.

Goku, Ruby and Yang all promptly stepped into the living room. They all stared and nodded to each other, signaling the start of Yang's plan. Goku pulled out his power pole and extended it to hold Qrow up in the air by the collar. He brought Qrow to the bathroom, Yang was pouring tomato juice on the bathtub while Ruby was zipping around carrying the cans to give to Yang. Throughout all of this, Qrow was still sleeping soundly, muttering things in his sleep while being held up in the air.

Once the tub was filled with the stuff, Yang stopped pouring the tomato juice, meanwhile Ruby was cheerfully looking up at her uncle. Yang signaled Goku as she pointed her thumb at the tub. Goku returned his power pole to its original state and Qrow was immediately dropped into the tub with a splash.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" The day certainly did not start well for Qrow.

* * *

"You kids, never do that again, you hear me? Why did you even do it in the first place?" Currently, Qrow was using a towel to wipe off the water on his face after just having taken a shower.

"Sure. Uncle Qrow, unless you sleep in again. Also, I heard that's how you get rid of alcohol smell." Of course, that really wasn't her reason, Yang just wanted to prank her uncle, having Goku and Ruby's help just made it easier for her.

"That's not how it works! Anyway, kid, you know where your house is?" Since Qrow was now tomato juice-free, he wanted to get this over with quick.

"Uh huh."

"Alright, let's go," Qrow was about to reach the entrance, but two figures were blocking the way.

"Stop you two, you're not going without taking us." Ruby held out her open palm, as if imitating a stop sign.

"Sure, why not?" The response was almost instantaneous, that it made all of them blinked a few times just out of surprise.

"Alright old man, what's the catch?" Yang was skeptical. Sure, Uncle Qrow was known for being irresponsible but he definitely cares about both of them, and they're going to a grimm infested forest, so there's gotta be some sort of punishment once they get back.

"There is no catch, since I'm the one who's doing all the protecting, you two will be fine," Qrow said as he gently rubbed both of their heads as he walk passed by.

As all four of them got out of the house, the youngest in the group turned to her uncle, "Alright, so how we get there?" Before Qrow could answer her question, Goku yelled out, "Nimbus!"

In seconds, something shined in the sky. On closer inspection, it was a small golden cloud flying towards them. The cloud landed right in front of Goku, the other three all stared in disbelief.

"What in the-, I don't even-, you know what, screw it, lay it on us kid, what is that?" The day was only starting for the man, but Qrow's already done with it.

"Yeah yeah, what is that? A magical cloud that lets people ride on it?" Ruby was absolutely ecstatic since this looks like something out of the stories that Yang tells.

Ruby wasn't the only one who was excited, Yang was just as excited as her younger sister was. It looked like something that can take her to all sorts of adventure and such, something that she always wanted since she was younger.

"This is Nimbus, my grandpa gave it to me, grandpa told me that his master, Master Roshi gave it to grandpa since his master couldn't ride it anymore, but since grandpa couldn't ride it either, he gave it to me."

"What do you mean, ride it?" Qrow couldn't help but ask the question that he and both his nephew are asking.

"Grandpa said only a person with a pure of heart can ride it," To prove his point, Goku jumped onto the cloud, surprisingly not falling through it. Ruby quickly jumped onto the magical cloud, followed by her older sister. As expected, both of them were able to ride the cloud just fine.

"Come on, Uncle Qrow, give it a try!" Qrow shook his head and walk in another direction as he waves his right hand.

"No thanks, I rather not fall flat on my ass and have you three see it. It doesn't look like it can carry anymore extra weight. Don't worry, I'll follow you three just fine, so just go where you need to go."

"Alright then, come on Goku, full speed ahead." Goku nodded as the Nimbus floated upward above the trees and started flying in a straight line. As the trio head out, Qrow was quickly regretting his life choices in general as he followed them.

Yang was currently wrapping her arms around Goku's waist just so that she doesn't fall off. "Woohoo! This is A-AMAZING!" Ruby yelled as she held on tightly to her older sister.

"So, where are we heading?" Yang asked as she looked around the area, searching for something remotely like a house. "Just up there, it should take a few minutes."

"Hey Goku, why didn't you just use this when you were being chased by those beowolves yesterday?" Yang was sure this could have helped him escape easier if he rode it.

"Umm, I forgot?" Goku responded with a vacant look on his face.

"And you're supposed to be older than both of us," Yang rolled her eyes, it was becoming clearer and clearer to the blonde that the monkey faunus has some sort of mental illness.

"What does that have to do with this?" Goku innocently answered back.

"Never mind, is that your house down there?" Yang pointed as she saw an area where it's different from the other parts of the forest.

"But why is it all wrecked?" Ruby asked with concern.

Goku said nothing as Nimbus sped up to their destination, Yang and Ruby were holding on tighter than before. As golden cloud landed, the trio jumped out of the cloud. Nimbus went back up to the clouds, Goku slowly walked to the wreckage before him.

"Who did this?" He was mad that someone would do this to grandpa's house.

"The Grimm would be my best bet, I wager," Qrow slow walked out of the woods.

"But why, grandpa's house wasn't dangerous to any of them."

"You gotta remember, kid, the grimm are unpredictable, researchers has been studying but not much has been found." Qrow sympathized with the kid, losing anything from a love one always hurt especially when that person is already gone.

The monkey faunus suddenly realized that he still needed to find the dragon ball. Goku sprinted to the wreckage and started to rummage through the wreckage, trying to find his grandpa's last memento. It took the two sisters a while to realize what Goku was doing, they then ran after him to try and help search with him. Meanwhile, Qrow was observing the site of wreckage.

After several minutes, Ruby let out a shout and waved her hands to signal the other three.

"Hey, Goku, is this it?" Ruby was holding a spherical orange ball on her left hand.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Goku was relief that the dragon ball was still there.

"It's really pretty!" Ruby was entranced by the reflection of the magical item she was holding.

"So, that's the mystical dragon ball that you said?" Honestly, Qrow was a bit skeptical about its existence at first, but seeing it up close completely destroyed any of his doubts.

"Wow! It looks really magical, orange and all," Yang was kinda curious if that wish thing was real or not, she had a wish in mind but disregarded it since it was impossible.

Goku turned his head and stared at the wreckage what used to be his house, he honestly had no idea what do next, he was lost and without a home now.

"Now that grandpa's house is gone, I don't know where to go anymore."

"Oh! You can always stay with us, right Yang?" Ruby was looking at her older sister for support on this.

"Yeah! I mean why not? You're pretty fun to hang out with," Yang really liked being friends with the guy, anyone who could help her in pranking her uncle was alright in her book.

"Are you sure? I don't wanna disturb you guys or anything." Qrow was yawning while all this was going on, Yang got a bit irritated and elbowed her uncle's right knee.

"Sure, why not? It's not like I have any say in that house anyway." He didn't really oppose the idea, and with enough begging, Taiyang would be on board with it, Taiyang'll just have to pay ten times the amount for food supply.

"You just leave the convincing of our dad to Ruby and me, there's no way he can resist our adorable puppy eyes, especially Rub's," The blonde was confident that their dad can resist their charm.

"Really, thanks! But before we go, I want to make a promise to Grandpa here first and something else." Goku turned his body and walked slowly to his wrecked house. As Goku stood before the wreckage of his former home, he held his breath and shouted with all his might.

"GRANDPA, I PROMISE TO YOU HERE AND NOW THAT I'LL BECOME THE STRONGEST THERE IS, BUT UNTIL THEN, I WON'T COME BACK!"

After making such a proclamation, Goku turned his head and stared at Qrow with a steely gaze. Surprisingly, Qrow was returning the stare.

"Qrow, I want to fight you right now!"

"I knew this would happen. Alright, you sure about this, kid? I'm pretty strong and from what I seen, you don't stand much of a chance," From how the kid fought those beowolves yesterday, there should be nothing to worry about, except that poking technique. But then again, appearances are deceiving.

Goku shook his head, "I don't care, I wanna find out how strong I am right now!"

Ruby and Yang expressed their concern. "Goku! No, please don't, you can't fight uncle Qrow!"

"Yeah, I mean, you could always get stronger later."

"No, if I don't do it now, then I'll get lazy, not wanting to improve at all. Ruby, can you hold on that dragon ball for me?" Ruby nodded as she held on to it.

"Get to the sidelines, you two, this is a warrior kind of thing. You'll understand it one day, even if it's stupid," Qrow held out his longsword and waited for the battle to start. The two sisters look at each other nervously and ran to the sidelines.

"Yang, I don't know what to do, am I supposed to cheer for my new friend or for Uncle Qrow, I'm so confused," Yang said nothing as she tried to reassure her sister that it's fine, even though the reason for the fight was really dumb.

"You better not do something stupid, even for you, Goku, and you too Uncle Qrow!"

Goku posed in his standard martial art stance, waiting for any openings that Qrow might have. Qrow, in turn, was waiting for Goku to attack.

After a few seconds, Goku jumped and pulled out a series of punches at Qrow. Qrow, in turn, dodged all of them with upmost ease by shifting his body at the last moment before Goku was even able to touch him. As Goku continued punching, Qrow kicked the monkey faunus right in the gut and Goku was thrown right to the ground. Goku then got up again, but before he was able to retaliate, Qrow quickly closed the gap between them and hit him with the hilt of his blade. Even if it was a light effort on Qrow's part, Goku was blown away to the wreckages of his former house.

"Uncle Qrow, don't you think that was too hard?" Ruby was worried about her new friend, as awesome as it was to see him pull punches like that.

"He'll be fine. Hey! What's the matter kid, giving up? Didn't you say you want to be the strongest, then here's the crash course to the starting point," Qrow hoped the kid was still able to stand up, he was strong for a kid his age, but he's still got tons more to improve on.

"Power Pole EXTEND!" out from the wreckage was Son Goku, he jumped out of the plank of woods while holding his enlarged power pole with both his hands, preparing to swing his pole at Qrow. As the pole was about to hit the drunken man, Qrow stopped the attack with the steel of his blade. With a quick kick at the pole, Goku lost his grip on the pole as it return to its former state and fell down to the groound. With a grunt, the monkey faunus got up from the ground, the power pole a few feet away from him.

"Don't think your strength's gonna help you out on every fight, kid. If you can't find a way, then make one." Qrow's impassive face was making Goku to consider his options. Goku took a deep breath, and immediately dashed to Qrow to use his rock-scissors-paper technique.

"Really now, guess you're denser than I thought," Qrow felt disappointed as he shook his head. "Rock!" As Goku pulled out a right hook to his opponent's face, Qrow dodged to his right side. "Scissors!" Goku immediately responded by using his left hand to poke the older man's eyes out, too bad Qrow bended his back, thus avoiding the attack all together, but Goku wasn't done yet, "Paper!" Goku opened his right hand to slam Qrow's entire body. Due to Qrow's heightened battle sense, Qrow was quick enough to respond accordingly by pulling his sword to defend himself. The instant Goku's palm touch Qrow's sword, he grabbed it and lifted both his legs to use Qrow's sword as a leverage to jump backwards. Qrow was pushed back a bit by the sudden jump.

"Not bad, starting to use your head there, kid?" Qrow said as he got out from his defensive position. While in the air, Goku crashed near his power pole and grabbed it with his tail while rolling on the ground.

"Power Pole EXTEND!" Goku extended his power pole yet again as he slams it downward to the ground where Qrow was originally standing. The huge force behind Goku's attack caused a small dust cloud to form in front of his opponent. With Qrow's vision rendered useless, it took the drunken man a few moments to take a huge swing with his sword, causing a slight wind pressure that dispersed the dust cloud. Once his vision returned, he was surprised Goku got noticeably nearer to him and stood in some kind of weird pose. Goku cupped both of his hands forward and a small whitish-blue beam was coming right at Qrow, "— HAAAA!"

Qrow only had two words in response to this, "Oh cr—," the beam formed a small explosion once it collided. Goku was kneeling with his left leg up, visibly exhausted and covered with bruises. He put everything into that one blast.

"That was ….awesome!" Ruby couldn't help but yelled that because what Goku pulled off was like an ultimate move.

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to our fight now." Yang knew he was strong, but to have his semblance unlocked already? She'll have to work hard to so that she can fight the guy on equal grounds one day.

"Nice work kid, you managed to hurt me, as small as the damage was," as the dust started to disappear, Qrow was standing there, with no visible damage except for the small tear on his clothes located on his right arm.

"Alright, that's enough for the day. Ruby, Yang, grab the kid, we're going back."

As the two held him by the shoulder, Goku was muttering incoherent things, "—ven't lo—," Yang was a bit irritated that the idiot she's holding still hasn't given up yet, "Quit it already Goku, just get even stronger later, got it?"

Ruby decided to cheer up her new friend, "Cheer up! Goku, not a lot of people can hurt Uncle Qrow."

"Hey, I wasn't hurt, I just… let me guard down, by the way kid, call your ride."

It took a lot out of Goku to even talk, but he was still able to do it in the end. "Ni...mbus!" As the small golden descended and floated in front of all of them. Once they started to move, Goku wanted to say one last thing here.

"W-Wait, Yang, Ruby, can you turn me around?" The two did as instructed.

"Bye, grandpa. See ya later, when I'm the best."

* * *

"So, how was it?" Taiyang asked as he wasn't aware of today's event.

"We went, we fought there, we came back."

"Fight? Please elaborate on that, and please explain the golden cloud, as well."

"Yeah well, the kid called it the nimbus cloud, only those with pure of hearts can ride it. Heh, be happy, Taiyang, at least your kids are not tainted yet."

Taiyang was slightly happy about that. "I see, what about the fight? Were you attacked by beowolves, Goku looks worse for wear."

"That's thanks to me. The kid's actually pretty strong."

"Qrow! Are you insane? You fought against a chid!" Qrow was a professional hunter, what was he thinking fighting a twelve year old boy?

"Yeah, a kid that was able to hit me once." Qrow answered. Sure, he was a bit peeved he was hit by a kid, but the kid was impressive, so he let it slide.

"What, how?" Qrow was an experienced hunter, a hunter that has gone out of the borders for dangerous missions.

"It was a laser beam, as straight forward as that. I even asked him about it before he went to sleep, he called it the Kamehameha Wave, said he needed his Ki to use it. Let's just call that Ki thing his semblance from now on."

"I see. Alright, moving on, why were Yang and Ruby begging me to let him stay here?" Taiyang didn't stood a chance when both his daughters beg him to let the monkey faunus to stay here.

"His home's wrecked, all that's left is that well there."

"Alright then, why do you want to bring him to Ozpin in a few days' time?"

"The kid wanted to get stronger, meeting Ozpin once should help him a lot in the long run." Ozpin was someone Qrow trusted wholeheartedly, he was sure he can make the kid much stronger than he was now.

"And why are you honoring his wishes, he's just a kid." Granted, Goku was strong for a child his age, according to Qrow, but it didn't warrant visiting the headmaster of Beacon Academy.

"Sure, he's a kid alright, but his determination is real. Plus, I got something to take care of at Beacon anyway."

"Fine, although the matter with that orange ball…."

"We'll talk about that later. First, you owe me ten Lien."

Taiyang pulled out his wallet as he grumbled and handed Qrow the money. Qrow had a bad start today but it was all worth it in the end. The shattered moon shined throughout the night, getting ever closer to being full.


	4. Lessons

A few days have passed since that fight. Qrow informed the monkey faunus that he would have to prepare himself for a trip to Beacon Academy. The constant whining from the siblings didn't help much once they knew Goku was going to Beacon. During the day of departure, Yang and Ruby were sticking to Goku like glue. Thankfully, Taiyang went into papa-bear mode and was able to stop the two from going there. Both Qrow and Goku ran as fast as they could once Taiyang was able to hold them down. Too bad he was only able to hold them off…. for one second, but the moment Ruby and Yang got out of the house, no one was there.

* * *

"Wow, so this is the sea," Goku said in amazement as he stood at the upper deck of the ship, gazing at the scenery before him. He was fascinated by how huge the ocean was. Meanwhile, Qrow was chatting with the crew members here, telling them crazy fish stories that he heard.

As Qrow finished telling his tale, Goku was finally able to see something other than the endless body of water. As the ship got closer and closer, Goku was getting more excited as this would be the first time he got out of his home and explore the world. Once the ship landed near the port, Qrow and Goku gave their thanks to the crew members and came down from the ship.

"Welcome to the city of Vale, with people bustling about all the time. It's divided into multiple sectors, but your brain will probably overload if I told you all that, just know that this place is called the commercial district," Qrow explained as he led Goku through the street.

Goku was staring at the place left and right, noticing that men were carrying boxes, putting them in cargo ships. Various shops were also set up here.

"Anyway, we're going to Beacon first, I got some business there," Qrow didn't want any detours at all, just go to Beacon, and get back to Patch. Easy, right?

"Aww, can't we stay here for a while?" Goku wanted to explore this place more, it was the first time he's been here.

"No can do, if I take my eyes off you for even a second, something dumb would probably happen and I'll have to deal with it for the entire day. By the way, don't pat on anyone you see like you did with Yang," Qrow hoped the kid wouldn't do that to anyone during their visit, a blond woman in particular.

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson."

* * *

As the two approach the gate of Beacon Academy, they saw two figures standing at the front gate. One of them looked like a middle-aged man with tousled silver eyes and thin brown eyes. He had a light complexion and sharp facial features. He wore shades and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. His outfit was an unzipped black suit over a buttoned vest and green shirt. He wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. He was also currently holding a coffee mug on his left hand and carrying a cane with his right.

The other was a woman that had light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green and she wore thin ovular glasses, with dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar. She wore a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body was covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings. She wore black boots with brown heels, and a cape that was purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape is at the end were shaped like flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above this line of beads appeared to be an emblem of a tiara. She was also holding a riding crop with her right hand.

"So, this is the child you told us about?" The first to speak was the older woman as she eyed the young monkey faunus before her.

"Ye-up, this is the kid I've been yammering about, thought it would be a great idea to let him visit the place," Qrow answered sincerely.

"My, Qrow, seems like you have taken a liking to the boy," The older man said he sipped his cup of coffee.

Qrow chuckled as he introduced the two to Goku. "Kid, the blond one here's Glynda, she's one of the professors at Beacon here, also one of the most strict and looks like she constantly have a stick up her a— ."

Glynda was a bit annoyed by Qrow's introduction, so she stepped up and interrupted the drunken man before he finished. "I am Glynda Goodwitch, Nice to meet you, young man. The man beside me is Ozpin, the headmaster of this academy."

Ozpin held out his hand, which put Goku into confusion. "Why are you putting your hand out like that?"

"You were right, it seems like he was raised in the wild," Ozpin stared at Qrow as the drunk gave him a 'I told you so' look.

Glynda couldn't take it anymore as she sternly told Goku off for his lack of basic manners.

"Young man, shaking hand is a friendly gesture, showing respect to the person you're shaking hands with, and I also highly suggest you to name yourself."

Goku scratched his head. "But I don't know you, and you also know my name so why should I respect you?" Glynda was about to lecture on Goku for being disrespectful.

Ozpin chuckled at the young boy before him. "I see, I suppose I will have to earn your respect, then, I presume?"

Goku didn't exactly know how to respond to that. Ozpin interrupted his train of thought before it could go any further.

"Alright then, Goku, you may explore around the campus. Glynda and I have some matters to discuss with Qrow here."

"Yeah, go run around the place or something, I'll find you when I do, got it?"

Goku nodded his head but before he walked off, Glynda gave her one final warning.

"And Mr. Son, I advise you to be respectful to the teaching staff here, do you understand me?" Glynda cautioned as she whipped the ground with her crop.

Goku nodded as he ran. If Yang was strong enough to hurt him, he didn't want to imagine what someone like Goodwitch would do to him.

Glynda sighed, she hope the young man knew what she was talking about, "Qrow, just who have you brought to this academy?"

"Let's get inside first, alright? I got some things to tell you two."

* * *

Goku started walking around the main avenue as he took a glance at the statue before him. It was a male and a female, standing on a rock outcropping. As he continued to stare at the statue, the bell rang. Goku was confused by the sudden noise, so he looked around but was met with nothing but emptiness. That was, until a sudden blur went past him, and made him fell down. The blur that he saw came back and extended its hand. Goku took it and got up to see who or what he was looking at.

"My, I sincerely apologize for that! Although I've never seen you before, what are you doing here? Oh! What's that strange particular item you have there around your neck?" Oobleck had the biggest suspicion that the boy before him was the one who Ozpin informed about, he was also intrigued by what looked to be a mysterious artifact, with its strange four stars that are on the ball itself.

Goku had to blink for a second before he could tell what was going on, the man before the young boy was talking so fast that Goku couldn't keep up at all. Open closer inspection, it was a tall man with messy green hair. He had a white shirt partially tucked into his dark-green pants and its collar raised, showing a slack yellow tie, along with mismatched brown and black shoes. He also had round glasses that appear to be opaque, and also apparently holding a coffee mug.

"Aren't you suppose to tell me your name first, that's what the glasses lady told me."

Oobleck noticed that the monkey faunus was describing Glynda. "I horribly apologize. I am Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, I teach history here."

Goku tried to remember what Glynda told him, he tried his best so that he wouldn't mess up like what he did with Ozpin earlier. "Ok, I'm Son Goku. Nice ta meetcha." After Goku introduced himself, he noticed one thing about his introduction.

"You teach history? That sounds boring."

This statement made Oobleck to drink his coffee, and got right in the faunus's face. "Why, history is one of the most important things in this world! Without it, humanity would not stand right now. For example, what is that mysterious orb around your neck?"

"This? It's the four star dragon ball. My grandpa told me that when all seven balls are gathered, and when you chant the right words, a dragon appears to grant your wish."

"Interesting, but tell me dear boy, how do you know that wishes can be granted with this? Where is the proof?" In all the history books that Oobleck studied, he had never heard of these so called dragon ball. Even so, he was certainly interested about them.

"From what grandpa told, a long time ago, there was a guy that wished to be a king, and it happened because of the dragon balls. I don't know if that's true, but if my grandpa believes in it, then I do as well."

Oobleck put on one of his widest grin. "Do you see now, my boy? Without history, you wouldn't know about that, would you?" Even if the child before him was not one of his students, he still felt a strong sense of obligation and intended to ingrain this lesson to the faunus's thick head if he had to.

"I guess you're right, but it's still boring," For the life of him, Goku can't believe he will ever find something like that interesting.

"I'll convince you yet my boy, but look at the time, until we meet again!" Oobleck chattered as he blitz into the main building again.

Goku noticed that they were more people around him now. They were all wearing some kind of uniforms, Goku even noticed some of them had tails or different set of ears. He figured those were faunus, just like him. The people here were staring at him but Goku ignored them. As he kept walking, he suddenly thought of an idea. Goku then bended both his knees, and jumped to one of the lower platforms of the building. The surrounding people were all surprised by that. He proceeded to climb the building to get to one of the roofs. Once he finally got there, he saw a man was present there as well.

The person before him had gray hair, a gray mustache and a bit on the heavy side. He wore a double-breasted burgundy suit with gold piping and buttons. The pants he wore were tucked into olive boots.

"What are you doing here, lad?" the large man noticed the child and immediately came to a conclusion that this was the child that was visiting today. There could be no other explanation in the man's mind.

"My, are you the one Ozpin said was coming?" Goku nodded his head. "Then I welcome you to this prestigious academy, I am Peter Port, one of the professors here."

"Ok, I'm Goku. So, what do you teach here?" Goku hoped it wasn't anything boring.

"I teach the students here about Grimm." Port exclaimed as he puffed out his chest to show his confidence.

"Oh! You mean those black wolves? They weren't very strong." Honestly, those black wolves were not very different to regular wolves to him.

"Oh no, my boy! The kind you saw was merely the bottom of the hierarchy, the weakest of the weak. In fact, there are many kind of Grimm, such as the deathstalker and the boarbatusk. Why, you remind me of me when I was a young lad…"

As Port continued to talk about his younger days. Goku was forced to listen to Port as he rambled on about his past.

* * *

Ozpin, Glynda and Qrow were all gathered in the headmaster's office. Qrow was telling them everything he knew about the kid. After he was done, Ozpin was deep in thought while Glynda had a skeptical look on her face.

"I see, seven magical balls, each with their own numbers of stars on it. Once gathered, a wish granting dragon will be summoned, am I correct?"

"You know anything about it, Ozpin?" If anyone knew about fairy tales or legends, Ozpin would be the first one to come in mind.

"Really now, Qrow? Are you taking the word of a child seriously?" Glynda really couldn't believe something like this would actually exist.

"Now, don't jump to conclusions yet Glynda," Ozpin turned his head to Qrow. "Unfortunately, I have never heard of these dragon balls. However, we cannot just disregard them as simple folklore either, the three of us know that better than anyone."

The room was silent for a moment before Qrow broke the silence. "Guess I should tell the kid to that we're taking a night here," The day was getting late, Qrow figured it would be too late for them to get back to Patch. In theory, they could get back to Patch with the kid's golden cloud but he kinda wanted to stay here for a little more. He'll have to inform Taiyang later.

"If you might, I would like to tell him that myself," Ozpin said as he interrupted Qrow's thoughts.

The other two gazed at him in surprise. "You know, I can go tell him myself," Qrow said as put his left hand behind his head. Ozpin said nothing as he stood up and got out of the office, searching for the monkey faunus.

* * *

Once Port finally finished telling his story, he went back inside as he had other things to take care of. Before he did, he said farewell to Goku. The young faunus was relief that he was finally released from Port's hold on him. As the sun set, Goku was entranced by the scenery of the setting sun.

"Wow, this place is nothing like the mountains." Goku exclaimed in amazement.

"Not to ruin the mood here, but I am here to inform you that you'll be staying here for the night."

Goku turned his head back to see the headmaster of the academy, Ozpin was standing by the door. Hearing that they'll be staying here longer, Goku hoped that this would mean he could explore this place more. He just hoped that Yang and Ruby wouldn't mind once he got back.

"Care to go back down with me?" Goku nodded as the two then went down the staircases, walking down while Ozpin started their conversation again as he popped a question to the young faunus.

"So, how was your day here at Beacon?"

"Yeah, it was kind of fun. I met this tall guy with green hair who runs really fast, talks really fast too, and this big guy who had a huge mustache, he really liked talking about himself a lot though," Ozpin merely chuckled to Goku's response.

"I see, then if I may be allowed to ask, what have you learnt today?" Ozpin was confident that the young faunus here has learnt a lot from today.

"Well, the guy with the glasses taught me that history was important, I guess, and the guy with the mustache told me that there are so many monsters out there. I never knew that the world was so big," Goku exclaimed excitedly.

Goku was enthusiastic before he realized something, turning his smile into a small frown. "But I really want to get back into training though."

"You know? Taking a rest isn't a bad thing every once and a while," Ozpin himself knew this better than anyone.

"But won't everyone get stronger while I rest?" Goku really didn't want to be left behind in terms of strength when compared to everyone else.

"It is the opposite, even the greatest of warriors need rest. Think of it, rest gives you a calm mind. With it, you could achieve what you couldn't normally do with constant training. Not resting would be more detrimental than beneficial."

It took a while before Goku understood what Ozpin was talking about, "I guess I understand, you're saying that taking a rest isn't a bad thing."

"In short, yes." Once the two got out of the tower. Ozpin admired the full moon that was shining in the sky. "A full moon today, how beautiful."

"Full moon?" Goku accidentally gazed into the full moon that was hanging in the night. Suddenly, Ozpin heard a growl from the monkey faunus beside him. He turned his head and was surprised at the sight.

Goku's pupils were turning white, his whole body was shaking and his hair was getting wild, even for him. As the monkey faunus started getting bigger, his body was slowly getting covered in thick fur. All Ozpin could do was observe what was going on. Once the monkey faunus was done growing, all Ozpin saw was a giant ape with a tail, razor sharp teeth, and red eyes. It had at least the size of thirty feet. The giant ape suddenly yelled as it pounds its own chest.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR— "

"This will be a bit cumbersome."


	5. Full Moon

The nearby students were immediately aware of the gigantic ape that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Though they were hunter and huntresses in-training, they still had never seen this kind of event happened before in the history of Remnant. As the giant ape stopped its pounding, it turned its head to the headmaster here, which was Ozpin. It swung its left arm, aiming to hit him, fortunately Ozpin was able to avoid it as he jumped back. However, its attack damaged some of the structure of the building, causing debris to fall to the ground.

With quick thinking, Ozpin yelled out to the surrounding people. "Students, get out of the avenue, now! Head to the dorms, the professors will handle this." They were hesitant, but the combination of Ozpin's stern voice and the giant ape's loud growl made them follow Ozpin's instruction.

As the students left, the giant ape continued its assault on the surrounding area. Just before it could damage the area any further, a small figure jumped down from Beacon Tower. Once the figure descended to the ape's height, he blocked the ape's incoming fist.

With his cape flowing in the wind, Qrow was holding back the monster's fist with his longsword. He turned his head to Ozpin, "Heard a loud roar from the window. By the way, your window's broken, sorry about that." After saying that, Qrow quickly returned his attention to the giant before him. The ape tried to extend its free hand to hit Qrow. Luckily, the drunk jumped on one of its arm, then using his sword, created a shockwave which caused the giant to fall.

Qrow jumped back down to the ground and since Ozpin was the only one who knew what exactly happen, he had to ask Ozpin on what exactly happened here. "Ozpin, you know anything about the… giant monkey right here?" As he said that, Glynda came out of the door of Beacon Tower, just as confused. "Ozpin, do you know what that thing is?" Not just her, but Oobleck and Port also came out of the main building, they were surprised by the sudden roar when they were in the staff room.

With everyone present, Ozpin finally decided to put their confusions to rest. "Well, you see. This being before us is our young visitor, Son Goku." Everyone was astonished by this revelation. They couldn't believe that the young faunus was the giant ape itself, but if Ozpin himself said so, then that must be true.

"Now then, before he gets up, Oobleck, Port, please evacuate the remaining students to the dorm," Ozpin ordered as he hoped he could put this situation in control. Oobleck immediately followed Ozpin's order as he rushed to the find the remaining students as Port tried to keep up with his co-worker.

They turned their attention back to the ape again as it roared and got up from its fall, it tried to swipe all three of them. Being professional huntsmen, they were able to avoid the attack. The ape then turned its target to Glynda as it tried to stomp on her. Waving her riding crop, she formed a circle of protection, blocking the giant's attack entirely. Using her semblance, she was able to turn the debris into chains to cuff to restrain both of its arm. With the ape trapped in place, they now had some time to discuss their next course of action.

Qrow was the first one to voice out their strategy as he was preparing for the instance the giant breaks free. "Alright, need to make this quick. Ozpin, how did the kid turn into that thing in the first place?"

Ozpin put on a contemplated look, "I distinctly remembering him gazing at the full moon. That is when he started transforming."

Even after hearing that, it didn't look like that little tit-bit would help with this situation right now, "Ok? But do you have any idea on how to turn him back?"

"Unfortunately, I have none. My knowledge is only limited to what I know. Perhaps you might give me some insight to solve this problem, Qrow?" Ozpin thought that with Qrow's help, it should be possible to solve this problem.

"Would you two stop relaxing and think of a plan faster," Glynda didn't know how long she could keep her semblance up. The longer she used it, the less hold she felt that she had on the ape. It seemed like the ape was getting stronger by the second as it slowly got more frustrated over time.

"Nothing's coming to mind right now, and I don't wanna have to off the kid if I have to," Qrow didn't mind the kid, but if the circumstances required it, then he'll have to apologize to Ruby and Yang.

Ozpin was considering his options right now, it would seem the only way to revert the child was to eliminate the moon altogether, but that would be preposterous for…. numerous reasons. Ozpin hoped that he wouldn't have to end the child's life, it would end up being one of his long line of many mistakes in his life.

A loud roar was heard, cutting their conversation short. The ape finally released itself from Glynda's hold as it destroy the things tying its hands. It wasn't pleased with her since it was chained up like that. But just as it seemed like it was going to attack her, it then noticed a gate that was far away from the buiding it was standing nearby to. It then proceeded to stomp its way toward the gate.

Qrow immediately noticed its intention and quickly dashed right in front of it to stop it in its tracks. "Sorry, kid. If you wanna get out, you'll have to get by me."

Seeing that the figure before it was an immediate threat, it picked up one of the boulders from the debris and tossed it Qrow. Qrow immediately dodged to his left as the boulder hit the ground. What Qrow didn't see due to the boulder was the outstretched hand that the giant ape had when he was dodging, causing him to get caught by the ape. The ape was now holding Qrow with his right hand.

"Damn, I hold back once and I get hit once. I hold back again and I'm caught, great," Qrow whined as he was struggling to escape its' hold on him.

Glynda came to Qrow's assistance as she levitated the surrounding debris into the air and shot them at the ape from the back. One of the debris was able to hit the giant's tail, causing the giant to howl loudly as it felt immense pain and released its grasp on Qrow. As Qrow was descending in the air, he transformed his sword into a gun and shot the ape in the foot. Feeling the pain of the shot, the ape tried to punch Qrow again, but just before it could, Qrow shot the ground, elevating himself higher in the air, resulting in the ape to miss its' target. Once Qrow was on the ground again, he took another swing at the ape.

As the battle raged on between Qrow and the great ape, Ozpin was observing the battle and Glynda was a bit tired from her use of semblance holding the giant ape down.

"Glynda, did you noticed the ape was strangely vocal about his pain once you hit it in its tail."

Glynda slowly came to the same conclusion, "You don't think…"

"I do, most probably, his tail is the cause of this particular event, with the full moon being the catalyst."

"So, the only other way…"

"Is to cut its tail," Ozpin said as he finished her sentence.

As Qrow jumped back, he had his back against Ozpin and Glynda. He was eying the beast before him. "So, judging by the looks you two have, I guess you know how to stop the kid before this gets out of hand."

"Yes, we believe cutting his tail should revert him back to normal." Ozpin replied in a calm manner.

Qrow slapped his face, as if he suddenly had a realization of sorts. "Oh yeah, the kid did tell me his only weakness was his tail, but cutting it…, isn't that just…"

"Cruel, perhaps. But considering our options, this is the better alternative." Ozpin stated as if a matter of fact.

"You just leave that to me, he is my responsibility after all."

"Right, then I'll try to hold it down for a few seconds, the rest is up to you," Glynda said as she prepared herself.

Once their plans were set, the two put it into action. Glynda used her telekinesis as she tried to restrain the ape using the debris again. Once it connected, the ape could only struggle to break free. Taking this chance, Qrow quickly jumped and swung his sword downward, cutting the tail, causing it to fall off and leave a gigantic furred tail on the ground. The ape then slowly became smaller and smaller until there, it lied a naked little child.

With a heavy relief, Qrow picked up the kid. He turned around as if he was searching for something, "Anyone seen the kid's pole?"

'It's right here." Ozpin said as he handed Qrow the boy's weapon.

"So, anyone also got cloth for the kid to wear? I don't think him being naked is a good thing"

Glynda pointed her riding crop to Beacon Tower. Qrow said his thanks and headed there while Goku was sleeping soundly.

"How do you suppose you would explain this to the students, and the damages here?"

"It will be …. fine. Come, Glynda, let us go calm down the students."

The two then headed to the dorms as the full moon continued illuminating the night.

* * *

"So, how did it go?" Qrow asked as he hoped that this little incident won't be broadcasted to other kingdoms. They were now currently sitting in Ozpin's office, discussing on last night's incident.

"Fortunately, I was able to convince the students to take a silent vow on this one. This little incident will be nothing more than a rumor in a few weeks' time."

"Now then, for the important question, what do we do with here?" Glynda said as she pointed to the sleeping child in the room.

Currently, Goku was sleeping on the coach of the headmaster's office. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and blue pants. He was also snoring, which was annoying Glynda on how uncivilized the child was.

"I still suggest that you look out for him, Qrow. Now that we know he could turn into a giant ape whenever his tail is present and the full moon is present, what is to say his tail wouldn't grow back, and with the history you gave us regarding young Goku here. He would certainly be a valuable asset in the future."

"Yeah, after everything I saw just now, I might just believe in those so-called dragon balls. Anyhow, you guys have any idea on how should I tell the kid he lost his tail?"

"Don't tell him at all what happened. He is still a child, I think it would be best if he doesn't know, for now. One of us will have to tell him once he gets older."

"HYAAAAAWWWWWWW…"

The sound that came from the coach caught the threes' attention, they saw Goku was slowly opening his eyes.

"Where am I?" Goku asked as he rubbed his eyes, not having a clear head at the moment.

"You're in Ozpin's office, young man," Glynda answered the child.

"But why am I here?" Goku was confused, all he remembered yesterday was that he was having a talk with Ozpin, but what happened after, he couldn't exactly remember.

"You fell asleep early, kid. Just one itsy detail though…" Qrow said as he pinched the air.

Goku got out of the couch and tried to stand up, but fell down instead. He was having difficulty standing due to his tail not being on his back anymore.

"I lost my balance, that's weird."

"Probably because you don't have a tail anymore," Qrow said as he pointed to Goku's behind.

Goku turned his head to check. It was true, his tail was gone. Though his response was not one would expect from a person who just lost one part of his body.

"Oh well," The three were a little surprised that Goku was taking this so well.

Qrow couldn't help but chuckled a bit at Goku's simplicity. "I guess it's a good thing you're a simple person."

"Alright, we gotta get back, kid. Yang and Ruby has not been happy about our little overstay."

"Ok then, wish I could stay here longer though."

Ozpin stood up from his chair, walked to Goku and put out his hand, "As headmaster of this academy, Beacon welcomes you anytime you want to come visit. Also, Oobleck and Port sends their regards."

The other two behind him were expecting Goku to respond how he did yesterday but to both of their surprise, Goku was shaking Ozpin's hand, "Really? Then I'll definitely come back again."

Ozpin was mildly intrigued, "I thought you said only those who have your respect can be bothered to be greeted with proper manners."

"Well, you taught me something too. So, I respect ya, hope I get to learn more from you when I get a little stronger." No one noticed it, but Ozpin had a small smile on his face upon hearing the faunus's words.

"Now then, young man, learn some basic manners by the next time I see you, understand? Also, if you want some advice on fighting, then come find me." Glynda may have lectured the faunus for the entirety of his visit here, but he saw some potential in the child. Goku nodded at her words, excited at the chance to get stronger.

The two then left for Patch, where Taiyang was still having trouble keeping the two sisters at bay.


	6. Passing the Time

"WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! What happened to you, Goku? It's like you're naked now."

Currently, both Goku and Qrow have returned to the island of Patch. Once they came back, they were greeted by both Ruby and Yang. However, upon noticing Goku was missing his tail, Ruby felt that she had to voice out her concern. Yang, on the other hand, was...

"See, Goku? This is why you shouldn't be.… monkeying around, eh? Eh?"

…not very concerned.

It's not that she didn't care, but as soon as she saw Goku not caring much about his missing tail, she thought the whole situation was under control, although it was kinda weird seeing a faunus not having his animal part and the faunus in question not minding the lack of it.

"Oh, don't worry about it, it just fell off. I never saw where my tail fell though."

"It's still weird though. Oh, I just realized, now that you're back, tell us how cool it was at Beacon," Ruby always dreamed of going to Beacon to study, she heard of great things from her dad about the place.

"Yeah, come on Goku. You might as well tell us what you did there," Yang had plans on going to Beacon once she was old enough to enter, it would be great if she had more info on it.

Qrow interrupted the two since he's been feeling a little left out, "What, no greeting, you two? That's awfully rude, I am your uncle after all."

Ruby quickly straightened herself and apologized to her uncle, "Sorry about that uncle Qrow...Wait, I'm not sorry! You guys stayed there for more than one day, I think you should be apologizing to us."

"Gotta agree with little sis here, you two just flat out ran away from us. Goku gets a pass since he's new here but you don't, since you knew how much we wanted to go," Yang said with an annoyed tone.

Qrow put on a smile as he ruffled the sisters' hair and walked past by them. "Well, guess the kid will tell you about our trip there. Spoilers, nothing interesting happened. If you need me, I'll be inside with your dad."

As Qrow left the three to their own devices, Goku then began describing his experience there.

* * *

Once Qrow was inside, he noticed Taiyang was in the kitchen. His face was covered with small bruises, Qrow couldn't helped but laughed at his current state. "What, Taiyang? Two little girls too much for you to handle?"

"Shut it. I rather fight a deathstalker than do that again." Taiyang grumbled as he put his head on the table.

"For you, that's not very hard." Qrow said as he opened the freezer and popped a drink. He proceeded to drink it as he felt that he had earned it for the things he did yesterday.

Taiyang turned his head towards Qrow, "Getting drunk this early? What happened there exactly?"

Once Qrow finished chugging it, he sat down on the chair and put his drink on the table. "You have no idea. Wanna know what happened?"

"Please, enlighten me. This might concern my livelihood since he's living with us now." Taiyang felt that he needed to hear whatever was happening right now. At least he didn't have to worry about the twos' safety anymore since Goku was there now. The two then spent the entire afternoon having a discussion and Qrow just drinking his problems away, as always.

* * *

"Beacon SOUNDS AWESOME!" Ruby screamed once she heard everything from her new friend. She was so going to Beacon Academy after studying at Signal.

"Yeah, the professors there all sound … neat." Yang put it as roundabout as she possibly could, a mysterious headmaster, a strict woman, a guy who runs really fast all the time and a guy with a mustache that talks about himselfall the time. Even if they were a bit eccentric, she was still excited to study there.

Goku then stood up from his position, and dusted the dirt off his pants, "Ok, that's enough relaxing for today. I'm going to start training now."

"You just came back, why train? You know, you should learn to have some fun." Yang still couldn't really understand Goku's mindset. Sure, she liked to brawl as much as the next guy but the guy before her always think about fighting, or food, whichever comes first.

"But training is fun, I just wanna keep getting stronger and stronger," To the faunus, training was the only thing he ever wanted to do.

Ruby then suddenly had an idea. "Hey! Goku, do you mind teaching me those super awesome kung fu moves of yours? You wanna join in, Yang?" Sure, Ruby wanted to learn how to use weapons first, but learning a few moves wouldn't hurt. Plus, she could hang out with her new friend and Goku gets stronger too.

"Yeah, why not? Couldn't hurt," Yang was always a punch first, ask question later kind of girl, learning from a guy who lived and breathed martial art should help her get way stronger than she was now.

Before they got started, Taiyang came out of the house and saw the three of them talking. Once he heard that the young faunus wanted to train, he thought of an idea.

"Goku? I think I have an idea for your training schedule while you're here." If Goku accepted this, then this would seriously lighten his burden on feeding the faunus.

Goku turned his head to face Taiyang. "Ok? What is it?" Goku was excited, it might be a new way for him to get stronger.

Taiyang cleared his throat before speaking, "I heard that the early milking delivery has an opening job. Of course, children are not allowed to take jobs like this but if you like, I could recommend you to take the job."

Yang had to interject, she wasn't exactly sure that Goku could handle this, "But dad, the island is huge, how do you expect Goku to deliver them all by himself, and did you forget about the beowolves?" Ruby nodded, agreeing with her sister.

"It's fine, I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't believe he could do it. Judging by your uncle Qrow's stories, I say he'll be fine as long as he takes the scenic route."

"I'll do it, grandpa did always tell me the strangest ways to train can sometimes be the best."

"Excellent, I'll go tell the local milk delivery, so you should start tomorrow, early in the morning." Taiyang then left the three, as he went to call the person in charge of milk delivery.

"Can we get back to a bit of our training now?" Yang was getting a little bit impatient.

"Yeah, what do we do first?" Ruby was curious as she only saw Goku ever do those martial art stances a few days ago.

"Well..."

* * *

The following early morning, Goku was at the front yard of Taiyang's house, doing some stretches. He was preparing himself to run around the island, delivering milk to every house on the island. Goku then ran to the house with the guy who was distributing the milk. As soon as Goku got there, he saw a large guy putting two boxes of milk on the ground.

"Ah, are you the one Taiyang recommended?" The large man wasn't the least surprised by the young faunus' appearance, he was already informed of this by Taiyang.

"Yeah, so all I have to do is deliver these two boxes to everyone on the island?"

"Got that in one, son. Here's the delivery route." The large man said as he handed Goku the map of the delivery route.

"Do try to get it to everyone before it turns sour, alright? I wish you luck, my boy." The man then went back inside his house and shut the door.

Goku was looking at the map, surprisingly, he was not having much difficulty in understanding it since it was so simple. "Ok, I can do this."

Goku ran around the island, delivering the milk to each of the houses on the island. He was tired numerous times during the delivery, but he thought it as training and never gave up. Once he finally delivered it to the last house he knew, he noticed there was only one milk bottle left. He was confused for a second, before Goku remembered that he missed Ruby's house. The boy then went back as fast as he could.

* * *

Once he got there, he saw Yang in the front yard, repeatedly punching a tree.

"Hey, what are you doing?" It's not often that he saw Yang wake up this early, it was usually Ruby who got up first.

As Yang launched her last punch, she turned her head to face the faunus, she saw that the guy was drenched in sweat, had a hard time breathing and had a bottle of milk in his hand.

"Oh, you know, just getting some exercise in." Yang couldn't tell him the real reason, she was preparing for her future fight with the guy and she wanted a good fight, not a one-sided one.

"Where's Ruby?"

Yang pointed to the house, "She's in the kitchen, still sleeping. You did push us pretty hard yesterday, Ruby's all tuckered out." What Goku taught them yesterday was exhausting for a kid, the only reason Yang was able to keep was because she's stronger than most kids her age but the same couldn't be said for her younger sister. Well, she at least thanked the guy for not pushing it too far.

"So, you want some breakfast? I doubt you ate anything yet," Considering the guy's appetite, he must be starving right about…now.

As soon as Goku heard the word breakfast, a loud rumbling sound came from his stomach.

"Guess that answers that. Come on, let's go eat breakfast," Yang said as she led the guy by his hand, pulling him into the house with her.

Once the two got inside the kitchen, they heard a small whine. Qrow was slumped on his chair, Ruby was on the table with her head down and Taiyang was setting the dishes on the table. There were a lot of plates on the table, Taiyang had to prepare more now that Goku was here.

Yang noticed her sister was still sleeping, probably tired from yesterday. "Come on, Ruby. Wake up!" Yang said as she shook her sister.

"Can't.… Move… Need… Sleep," Ruby muttered.

Goku was staring at the bottle of milk in his hand, and suddenly had an idea to wake Ruby up, "Hey, Yang. I know how to wake Ruby up."

Yang stared as Goku pour milk into Ruby's mouth. She was about to ask what was he thinking but Ruby immediately held her head up, took the bottle from Goku's hand and jumped onto her chair while holding the bottle high up.

"Let it be known, that I, Ruby Rose get stronger when I DRINK MILK!" Ruby was having the widest grin on her face at the moment.

"Keep it down, will you? It's not easy listening to you three brats in the morning," Qrow was still trying to get himself back together but his little session yesterday took a lot out of him.

Taiyang sat on the chair like the rest of them. All of them then began eating, minus Qrow who was still slumped on his chair. Goku, as usual, was eating at a terrifying pace, making the food disappeared instantly.

Disturbed by the kid's chewing sound, Qrow was finally strong enough to move, seeing the scene before him, he was quite put off by the kid's eating habits. "Geez, kid. Didn't Glynda tell you to have some proper manners by the next time you meet her."

Goku tried to answer but all that came out of Goku's mouth were muffled words. Yang couldn't take it anymore as she yelled at him, "SWALLOW first! You idiot!" She didn't mind the guy having a eating habit like that, but she will definitely not hear him talking like that.

Goku immediately swallowed the food in his mouth while pounding his chest. "I said, I'll learn it before I meet her again."

Qrow really didn't believe the kid's words, he just hoped that when the time comes for the two to meet, he gets to be there to watch the show.

"So, judging by the looks of it, you were able to deliver every last bottle of milk?" Taiyang inquired just to be sure.

"Yeah, I forgot that the last one was for this place though."

As Goku finished eating, Ruby poked his arm, catching his attention. "Hey, Goku. How about we go outside and play?" Ruby wanted to play with him and Yang since she's wide awake right now.

"Yeah, go ahead, you kids. Have some fun." Qrow said as he ate his toast slowly.

The three then went to the backyard as the two adults were left alone in the kitchen.

* * *

"So, what do you think we should play?" Ruby was looking forward to having a fun time with her new friend.

"Since it's his first time, we might as well let him decide," She just hoped it wasn't going to be anything weird. Then again, this was Goku they were talking about.

Goku was thinking hard about this, he didn't really wanna play with the sisters but he was grateful towards them so he went along with it.

Yang sensed his troubles and picked up a rock, "I knew you would rather train than play right now. Then, how about this? Ruby and I will throw rocks at you and you try to dodge them. If you dodge more than we hit, then you win and if we hit you more than you dodge, then we win, got it?"

Ruby had to voice out her concern on her sister's idea, "Yang! We can't just throw rocks at him, rocks hurt, a lot." Ruby emphasized as she put her arm above her head.

Goku, on the other hand, was ecstatic at the idea, "That sounds great, I get to learn how to dodge."

Yang was getting better and better at handling the guy, she didn't had any malicious intent in trying to hurt him, but since he wanted to train, again, this would be the best compromise.

Goku readied himself, preparing to dodge the incoming rocks. Ruby was holding a rock, although hesitant in all this. Yang, however was not as she started throwing rocks at him. At first, he was able to dodge them relatively easy, but as more rocks kept coming, he was getting hit by it.

It hurt him, but not to the point of bleeding and no bruises either. Yang knew that the guy wouldn't get hurt since he had his aura unlocked.

After Yang stopped throwing rocks, Goku was noticeably tired and fell down to the ground, surprisingly with no bruises on him.

Ruby was still unsure about all of this. Goku then stood up again, beckoning for her to try it again. "You win this one, Yang. But I'm going to win the next one." It might be training to Goku, but he felt something other than that, a sense of happiness when playing with them. Having never really played with children his age, he couldn't exactly explain his feeling at the moment.

"Alright. Ruby, you just stand back and watch, since you're not comfortable with this. I'll trick him into playing another game with us later." Ruby nodded as she smiled sitting down on the ground, watching the two have a go at each other.

* * *

A year has passed since Goku started living with Ruby and Yang. During that time, Goku had done numerous odd jobs for the people at Patch, helping them with any kind of physical work. His tail had grown back over the months, surprising everyone in the house at the time. He has also gotten noticeably stronger since then, having to spar with Qrow from time to time. Of course, it was completely one-sided in Qrows' favour every time. He also went to Beacon Academy a few times with Nimbus, learning more from the professors there. Even Ruby and Yang got a little bit stronger, having learnt the very basics of martial arts from Goku.

Currently, they were at the backyard of the house, having a conversation after just playing.

"Yay! Goku, you're starting your first day of school at Signal Academy tomorrow." Ruby was excited for her kinda-maybe big brother, she regarded him as such since he's one of the only people who treated her fairly, not many people did that often besides Yang so she kinda considered him her big brother over the months, her somewhat short big brother.

"It's been a year, but you haven't grown much, have you?" It was kinda weird seeing herself taller than him now, but her friend was always weird himself. Having him live with them over the months, Yang has been seeing the guy as a good friend, maybe even a best friend at this point.

Though the two were excited, they noticed Goku was uncharacteristically quiet right now. Just as they were about to ask him what was wrong, he finally opened his mouth.

"Hey, guys. I think I need to tell you now, I'll be leaving today."

"WHAT!""HUH!" The two immediately yelled upon hearing Goku's sudden announcement.

"Wait wait, what do you mean you're leaving?" If what Goku said was true, then Ruby would be really sad, she didn't want another person in her life to leave her again.

"Yeah, buster. You better have a good explanation for this," Yang was more mad than sad that he told them this something as important as this at the very last day.

"I want to travel the world," Goku proclaimed proudly.

Yang had a very good idea why he wanted to do it, "Let me guess, it's because you can get stronger."

Goku nodded his head, he knew Yang would understand the instant he said it.

Ruby, was still sad about all this, "But why can't you train here? You know, like with us."

"Well, Ozpin told me once that travelling the world is a good experience and a chance to get stronger in a lot of ways. Plus, I might even find a dragon ball if I'm lucky."

Yang couldn't help but shake her head, this should be expected of the guy, "Alright fine, usually I would punch you for this, but you're always like this, just promise us you'll come back one day, ok?"

Goku nodded his head, "Ah, I almost forgot, Ruby, I'm giving Nimbus to you once I'm gone."

Ruby was confused by this, "Don't you need it to travel the world?"

"Nope, I'm going to be walking and swimming all the way."

"Isn't that dangerous?" As strong as he was, she was still worried about him.

"I'll be fine, I'm sure I'll come back someday, so take care of Nimbus for me, will ya?"

Ruby said nothing as she ran up to him and hugged him. After their long hug, Ruby released her grasps on him. Goku stared at Yang in the eyes, and then they fist bumped each other.

"Don't forget about our fight, got it?"

"Right. Also, can you take care of this dragon ball for me, Yang?" Goku said as he took the dragon ball off his neck and handed it to Yang.

"Isn't that your grandpa's?" She was glad the guy trusted her but this was his grandpa's last memento.

"It's fine, at least I know my best friend is taking care of it, right?" Goku said sincerely.

Yang flashed a big grin, "What? You afraid you'll drop the ball?"

After giving her the dragon ball, Goku realized that he didn't tell Qrow or Taiyang about this, he didn't want to tell them because they'll probably stop him from going, so he hoped Yang could help him with this, "One last thing, can you tell your dad and uncle goodbye for me?"

"Just leave it to me, don't know about Uncle Qrow though, so you better hurry."

After he gave his thanks, Goku turned his back and started running. With his power pole strapped behind his back, he looking back at them while waving his hands. Ruby waved hers while shedding a tear. Yang was yelling at the top of her lung, "You better return, Goku! Or I'll punch you the next time I see you."

Thus, young Goku started his travels around the world, with hopes of adventure and meeting new people. Of course, he would come back after his travels, what he didn't know was that he wouldn't see the two for a very long time.

* * *

"I see, it seems I have brought a monkey, along with the dragon balls here. No matter, in due time, this pest will be crushed accordingly."


	7. Falling Rose

Under the illuminating moonlight in the streets of Vale, there was a man, his name was Roman Torchwick. He had slanted, dark-green eyes and bright, long, orange hair, with long bangs covering his right eye, with a black eyeliner tracing his left eye. He was wearing a red-lined white suit with long black pants and black shoes. His accessories included a small gray scarf, black gloves with buckled sleeves, a black bowler hat with a small feather tucked into its red band and a cane in his right hands. He was walking the streets of vale while smoking his cigar, joined by him were men with red sunglasses in black suits. As they kept walking, they entered a dust shop, named 'From Dust Till Dawn'. Once they entered, the shopkeeper was immediately alarmed of their presence there.

Roman had a good feeling about tonight as he got up close to the shopkeeper, "Do you have any idea how much trouble it took me to even find a dust shop at an hour like this?" he said as he flickered his cigar.

As soon as he said that, one of the goons behind him aimed his gun at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper immediately held up his arm in fright.

"Please! All the Lien is in here, just don't kill me!" He said in a panic as he was afraid of the possibility of him dying.

Roman interrupted the old man as his wiggled his finger, "Ah tat-tat, we're not here for your money, just the dust," He signaled the men behind him as he pointed his head toward the tubes on the wall, each holding different types of dust. The men followed his instructions as a suitcase was opened containing small cylindrical containers. They each took one as they proceeded to drain the dust using it.

One of the henchmen opened another suitcase, facing the shopkeeper.

"Crystals, in the case, now!" He said as he aimed his gun at the old man. The shopkeeper did as told as he took the crystals from the inside of the glass case and started putting them into the case.

As they continued to rob the dust out of the shop, Roman felt great about this heist as he continued smoking his cigar. He was sure nothing would go wrong tonight, after this, he would just go back, kick back and relax, maybe even go steal something else to reward himself, just the average day for the thief. It's not like some snot-nose brat would actually interfer—

A piercing sound of a window breaking was heard, Roman immediately turned his attention to the noise. Once he looked out from the window, he saw a young girl and a henchman on the floor, knocked out. She was a silver-eyed girl, as it turned out, it was the young Ruby Rose. Ruby was dressed in a black blouse, a black waist cincher with red lacing and a skirt with red trimmings, completed by a red, hooded cloak.

As Roman was considering his next move, Ruby took out Crescent Rose from her back and unfolded it into its scythe form. She smiled as she twirled Crescent Rose a few times before landing the tip of the scythe on the ground, waiting for her opponents to attack.

Roman kept his cool as he calmly ordered his men around, "Well? What are you waiting for, an invitation?"

The men then all came out of the shop, pulling their cleavers, encircling the red-haired girl. As one of them charged at her, she jumped while Crescent Rose was still on the ground and kicked her opponent in the face, causing the man to lose his sunglasses and fall to the ground. The others tried to attack her but Ruby pulled her scythe from the ground, fired it, allowing her to spin around and pushed her attackers away.

As Roman watched the fight, he could clearly see that the fight was in the girl's favour, it was a wise choice on his decision to acquire more men from Junior before this because even though they couldn't beat the girl, they could still stall her long enough for him to get away. They were expendable, after all. He threw his cigar to the ground, picked up one of the case filled with Dust crystals and proceeded to run to the ladder of the nearest building while she was still distracted. As he reached the top of the building, he saw that Ruby had finished off the last of his men.

Roman decided that a distraction was in order. As Ruby was still searching for him, he raised his cane up, with the bottom of it revealing a cross-grid, and fired a red blast at Ruby.

Before Ruby realized it, the blast directly hit Ruby and threw her to the wall of the shop.

As Ruby shook her head, she noticed her head was bleeding, making her feel a bit dizzy. Looking around, she couldn't see the thief anywhere. She figured he was running across the rooftops by now, She turned her head and faced the shopkeeper.

"You alright if I go catch him?" Ruby asked as she held her right arm holding on her head.

"You sure you don't want to bandage that first?" The shopkeeper was worried about the little girl who was struggling to stand up right now.

Ruby had an idea on how to keep up with the thief, "I'll be fine, I can still catch up to him…Nimbus!"

The instant the name was shouted, a small golden cloud descended from the sky and positioned itself right in front of Ruby. The shopkeeper was flabbergasted by what was going on. Before he could make sense what was going on anymore, Ruby winked at him and jumped onto the cloud.

"Full speed ahead, Nimbus!" The cloud then flew upwards and straight towards a certain thief.

* * *

Roman was running across rooftops, he finally stopped once there were no more rooftops for him to jump on. He was sure the little Red couldn't find him since she was nowhere to be seen.

What Roman didn't expect was that Ruby would drop from the sky and tried to hit Roman using her scythe. Thanks to his reaction time, he was able to dodge her attack at the very last moment, causing him to roll off the ground.

Once Roman got back up, Ruby tried to hook him in using her scythe, but Roman was quick enough to duck her attack. Ruby fired Crescent Rose as she spun around with her scythe, Roman used his cane and stopped her momentum completely and hit her wrist, causing Ruby to drop Crescent Rose on the ground.

Roman had a smug look at his face, now that Red didn't have her crop cutter anymore, he wouldn't need to worry about her. "Well now, Red, what can you do now that you lo—"

Ruby didn't waste any time as she used her open palm to hit Roman in the chin and jumped kick him in the gut, causing him to fall back a few feet. Having learnt the basics of martial art from Goku, she had some skills using her fist since she practiced it from time to time, not as great as her sister was, but good enough to land a hit.

Roman was clutching his stomach, visibly hurt by that surprise attack, he was getting particularly irritated by this whole thing, he was lucky to be saved of any further humiliation as a bullhead rose up in the air and opened the hatch for him to get into. Ruby was trying to grab her scythe that was on the roof. Once it was in her hands, she found Roman standing inside the bullhead.

Roman was holding a red Dust gem, "Toot-a-loo, Red," Roman then threw the gem at the ground before her feet and fired a blast at it, causing a huge explosion.

"Well, this was an evening well spent," just as he was about to turn his head, he noticed something else on the roof.

Glynda was standing in front of Ruby, casting a circle of protection protecting both of them. As Ruby held her head up, Glynda waved her riding crop and purple energy blast came out from her wand and hit the air craft, causing the craft to be thrown around.

Roman was getting sick of this as he went to the cockpit, where a woman in red was having difficulty in controlling the bullhead.

"We have a huntress on our tail," the woman got up and let Roman have the controls.

Glynda took this as an opportunity as she unleashed another blast above the aircraft, causing a storm cloud to appear.

Roman was in the cockpit, confused by the sudden darkness, "The hell?"

Shards of ice rained down from the clouds, hitting the aircraft as the shards stuck itself onto the aircraft, even breaking the window, narrowly cutting Roman.

Once the woman reached the back, as her arms and chest lighted up, she fired several bursts of flame toward Glynda. Glynda was able to block all of the attacks, but the ashes of the flames lighted up and pillars of flames were created. Glynda back flipped out of the attack while Ruby dashed to her right, avoiding the pillars as she yelled for nimbus.

Glynda levitated the remains and created a huge arrow and aimed it at the aircraft. The woman fired another huge blast, splitting the arrow into smaller arrows as it encircled the aircraft. It was about to hit until the woman created a barrier that expanded until it covered the entire aircraft, destroying the arrows.

As the remains fluttered in the air, Ruby was riding nimbus in the sky while shooting the woman with Crescent Rose. The woman was blocking each of her shot, Ruby transformed her weapon back into a scythe and jumped toward the back of the aircraft, trying to hook the woman out of the bullhead. Just as Ruby was about to reach her and see her face, the woman created a small wall of fire, blocking the attack altogether, causing Ruby to fall. The hatch closed and the aircraft flew away.

Luckily, Nimbus was able to catch Ruby from falling to the ground. As Ruby was put back on the roof, she stood up and stared at the woman before her.

"You're a huntress! Please, can I have your autograph… and also bandages for my head," Ruby said as she pointed to her bleeding head.

* * *

In a dark room, there was a bright light right above the middle of the room. Ruby was seated on a chair right underneath said light, with bandages wrapped around her head. She had a look of shame on her face as Glynda, holding a tablet computer on her hands, was pacing back and forth around the table.

"I hope you realized that your actions tonight will not be without consequences, young lady. You put others and especially yourself in grave danger."

"They started it!" Ruby cried as she felt that she did good tonight, she helped prevent a robbery. Well, half of it, at least, but that's gotta count for something, right?

Glynda shook her head and whipped her riding crop on the table, "You would be in a lot of trouble if it were up to me, young lady. However, there is…someone here who wants to meet you."

The door opened, revealing Ozpin with a plate of cookies on his right hand and a coffee mug on his left.

"Ruby Rose, you…have silver eyes," Ozpin said as he stared right into the young girl's eyes.

"Okay?" Ruby answered as she was confused by Ozpin's words.

"Where did you learn to do this?" Ozpin questioned as he pointed to the tablet screen held by Glynda, it showed Ruby using Crescent Rose, fighting off multiple goons.

"Signal Academy," Ruby answered shortly.

"They taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

"One teacher in particular," She was so glad Uncle Qrow took the time to teach her how to use a scythe, she wasn't that great using other weapons.

"I see," he then placed the plate on the table, gesturing for Ruby to eat it. After Ruby put one in her mouth, she continued to shove them into her mouth.

"You just remind me of another scythe user, a dusty old crow, that's all," Ozpin said as he sipped his coffee.

Ruby tried to answer Ozpin but all that came out of her mouth were muffled words, Glynda whipped her crop at the table as a warning for her lack of manners, scaring Ruby.

Ruby hurriedly swallowed her food, "That's my uncle Qrow. I was complete garbage before he took me in, now I'm like—Hoowah, Watchaa!" As Ruby kept doing kung fu poses, she accidently chopped the table in front of her, making a small crack.

"Oops, sorry," Ruby apologized as she scratched her head.

Ozpin, was undisturbed by this. Glynda, however, had a stare that could kill small puppies, "I see, then how do you explain the golden cloud?" the screen then showed Ruby riding Nimbus.

"Oh, Goku gave me that," She really liked riding Nimbus, ever since Goku gave it to her, she's been flying to a lot of places in Patch, sometimes even going to Vale. To Ruby, Nimbus was just as important as Crescent Rose.

"Ah, yes. Son Goku."

Ruby immediately stood up from her seat, "Have you seen him?" Ruby really wanted to find him, she knew he promised to come back but she couldn't wait anymore, there were like thousands of things she wanted to tell him, plus, Yang would be happy to know as well.

"Perhaps…but first, why is someone as young as you at a school designed to fight monsters?" Ozpin asked.

"Well, I want to be a huntress," Ruby answered sincerely, being a huntress was always her dream, after all.

"You want to slay monsters?"

"Yeah, I mean my sister's applying for Beacon this year, and I only have two years left at Signal and I really want to go to Beacon too once I'm done there, I wanna be a huntress cause I want to help people, my parents were one and they always taught me that helping people is a good thing. The police are…alright but I wanna be a huntress cause it just sounds much more exciting, romantic, fun, cool and awesome!" Ruby had to catch her breath as she was talking too fast.

Both Ozpin and Glynda stared at Ruby, scrutinizing her.

"Do you know who I am?" Ozpin knew that the young girl before him knew who he was, he just wanted to have a bit of fun.

"You're professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy."

"Do you want to come to my school then?" Ozpin already knew the answer, if the conversation they just had was anything to go by.

"Wait, are you inviting me? If so, yes! Yes! YES!" Ruby said excitedly as her scream got louder.

Ozpin smiled while Glynda showed her disapproval of this as she let out a grunt.

* * *

"Are you okay? Head still hurt?"

"I'm fine, Yang."

Ruby was currently on a large airship heading for Beacon, with the bandages still wrapped around her head. Yang was also with her, her big sister was a lot taller now than when Goku was still staying with them. She wore a tan vest with gold piping over a yellow low-cut crop top with a black crest, black shorts under her belt, over her short shorts but under the belt was a white asymmetrical back skirt. She had an orange scarf around her neck and brown knee-high platform boots. Her left leg also had a gray bandanna-like object wrapped around the top of her boot and fingerless gloves on both her hands, the four star dragon ball was still present as it was hooked around the right side of her belt.

"Then, I am so proud of you, sis, I can't believe you move up by two years since you're going to Beacon with me now," Yang congratulated as she hugged Ruby fondly.

"It's nothing really, sis," Ruby said as she got released from her big sister's hold.

"What do you mean it was nothing? You stopped a robbery, everyone's gonna think you're the bees' knees," Yang was happy for her sister, not everyone gets to move up early.

"I don't wanna be the bee's knees, I just wanna be a regular girl with normal knees that everybody have. Plus, Roman still got half of the dust…"

"You are special and well…, at least the dust shop wasn't completely robbed, I say that's a win," Yang said as she tried to comfort her sister.

"Oh! I almost forgot, Ozpin told me we might know where Goku is once we arrived at Beacon," Ruby said excitedly, she was really hoping Ozpin wasn't lying to her.

Yang had a surprised look on her face, "Really? Welp, I better give him a punch in the face if we found him first instead of him coming back," Yang said as she bent her right arm.

A hologram of Glynda appeared, catching the students' attention.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon."

"Looks like that lady Goku told us about years ago," Yang said since Goku's description of her hasn't changed much even though it's been years since then.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of attending this prestigious school. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have shown the courage and ingenuity needed for this task, now it is our turn to bestow upon you knowledge and training to protect this world."

As the hologram disappeared, the two then went over to the glass walls, gazing at the town below.

"Wow! Look Yang, you can see Signal from up here."

"You know Ruby, I'm pretty sure you seen this like tons of time already with Nimbus," Yang though Ruby had ridden Nimbus a lot during the years, this scene before her should probably be nothing special to her by now.

"But…, it's different. With Nimbus, I get to feel the wind and this sense of speed and a whooshing sound whenever I'm flying on it. When I'm on an airship, it feels slow, boring, and…Ok, point taken, Yang," Yang only smiled in response.

They then noticed a blond guy groaning as he ran past them, he looked like he was going to puke at any moment.

"Welp, that moment was ruined," Yang said as she rolled her eyes.

"Yep. I wonder who we're gonna meet though, I hope it's Goku…and maybe other people too."

Ruby then noticed Yang's puke on her shoe, she shouted in disgust and ran away from her sister. Hearing her sister shout like that, Yang stared at her feet and saw the very thing that disgusted her sister on her shoe, Yang quickly ran to the restroom in hopes of cleaning it, what she didn't know was another blond was using the only restroom on the airship, and it would take some time before she could use it herself. Once she got there and noticed the restroom was locked, Yang kept banging the door as the airship kept flying towards their new home.


	8. Reunion

"So, this is Beacon. It totally blows Signal out of the water."

Currently, the two were standing on school grounds, looking around their new home. Ruby, as expected, was excited to see all the different kind of weapons the students were carrying. Yang was about to snap her out of her trance until she noticed something peculiar around the main building. Observing closer, she saw it was Goku, the spiky hair gave it all away, even if six years had passed since then. Goku was about as tall as Yang now, he was wearing an orange gi with a blue shirt underneath it, dark blue wristbands on both of his hands, a pair of training boots with yellow border on it, his trusty old power pole on his back and a small pouch strapped around his belt, his tail was also sticking out like a sore thumb. Goku was running around the main avenue while dragging what seems to be a giant boulder. The students were just freaked out by the scene and didn't know how to respond.

Yang lightly elbowed her sisters in the arm, "Hey Ruby, look! It's Goku right over there, he's pulling a giant rock."

Ruby didn't even need to look to know that was him, only her big brother would be crazy enough to do that.

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's go Yang!" said Ruby excitedly at the thought of meeting Goku again.

Yang was running as Ruby followed her sister's trail until she crashed onto something, or someone in this case, causing her to fall flat on her butt.

"Look what you've done, you dunce!"

* * *

Once Yang got there, she noticed Ruby was not behind her anymore, Yang saw her little sister talking with someone, she thought it was best not to disturb her making new friends.

As she was getting near Goku, she noticed he was not running anymore. He was staring Yang directly in the eyes. Yang felt the atmosphere was pretty awkward as Goku started walking silently towards her. Goku was about to say the first word once he was in front of Yang, but before he could, Yang quickly punched him in the face.

"Ouch!" Goku said as he rubbed his face, Yang just had a wide smirk to his pain.

"Yep, you're definitely Yang alright, but why did you have to punch me in the face?" Goku was happy to see his best friend again, but being punched in the face wasn't a fun experience.

"That's for not coming back like you promised, we had to come see you instead of the other way around," Yang wasn't angry with him, she just wanted to mess with the guy.

"Aww, but I only just came here like a few days ago, I was about to come visit you and Ruby but Ozpin told me yesterday you guys were studying here from now on. By the way, where is Ruby?" Goku said as he looked around for his little sister.

"Oh, she's just making some new friends, you'll meet her later. Wait…, what do you mean you just came here a few days ago? In fact, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be out there exploring the world?" Yang was sure he wasn't a student here, no offense to her best friend, but he basically skipped combat school just to travel the world, it's kinda unbelievable if he actually was studying here.

"I work here," Goku stated simply.

Yang couldn't believe it, her best friend was working? She just had to know the specifics, "Ok? Can you tell me what exactly do you do here and how did you even come to work here in the first place?"

"Umm, after I came back from travelling..."

Yang just had to stop him before he continued on, "Hold up, you already finished travelling Remnant?" Goku only nodded his head in response, Yang shook her head and gestured him to continue.

"After that, Ozpin invited me to work here as a security guard. It's great, I get to train all I want and eat the food here, and all I have to do is make sure nobody's attacking the school," Goku as excitedly as he lifted his arms up and down.

Yang was pretty happy for the guy, but something he said caught her attention, "Oh? You're a security guard now, huh? Guess you're pretty strong since the headmaster of Beacon himself wanted you to guard the school."

"Not really. Yang, I met so many people in my journey, I realized I still have a long way to go, that's why I'm here, training every day to get even stronger than I am now," Goku was gazing at the sky, reminiscing his travels.

Yang chuckled, she was glad he was still the same old Goku, "That explains the giant rock behind you. So, wanna have that promised fight of ours right now?" Yang never forgot about the promise, she trained as much as she could because she knew he would be strong, even now she felt he was still stronger than her, but she didn't want to give up just because of that.

"I don't think it's a good idea, as much as I want to spar with you right now, you need to prepare for tomorrow, Ruby as well," Goku said as he scratched his head.

"Oh? So we have something to do tomorrow, thanks for the heads up! I am kinda surprised you used your head for once," Yang was kinda happy he was putting both her and Ruby before his lust for battle, guessed he did grow up a bit over the years.

Goku then noticed the four-star dragon ball around Yang's belt, "Hey, you still have the dragon ball?" Goku said as he pointed at the mystical object.

"Yup, been keeping it with me since you left, you want it back?" Yang kinda grew on the mystical object, it was a gift from his best friend after all.

Goku smiled, "Nah, I think you should keep it, I don't think I can keep another one with me."

Yang was confused by his words, her confusion disappeared as Goku opened the pouch around his belt, what came out of it was the one-star dragon ball.

"Wow, so you found one when you were travelling?" Yang was surprised he was even able to find one more of those things, they just might be seven of them after all.

"Yup, found it when I was in an ice cavern at Mistral."

"Guess I'm keeping it then, so wanna come with me to the ceremony?" Even if he wasn't a student here, it would be great to have him around since Ruby's not with her right now.

"Sorry, I wanna continue training here, so see ya later Yang," Goku then strapped the ropes back on him and continued his run around the school while pulling the giant boulder behind his back.

After Goku left, Yang decided she'll go meet with him later after the welcoming ceremony and headed to the ampitheater, hoping her sister was already there waiting for her.

* * *

As Goku continued running around the school grounds, he noticed two individuals standing a bit further away from him, he was sure that nobody should be around right now. The new students were already entering the ampitheater and the upperclassmen were having classes right now, so he got curious and ran closer to them. Due to the gigantic object he was pulling, he was unable to dodge the sudden blur that came onto his back.

"Goku! Did you miss me, did you?" Ruby was holding onto his back and hugging him tightly.

"Yeah, I did, but can you let go of me now, Ruby? It's getting kinda hard to move," Goku exclaimed.

Ruby then got off her big brother, and cheered excitedly, "Ohh! I have so many things to tell you since you left, like how I learnt how to use Crescent Rose, my first time stalking Yang's date, beating bad people up and..."

Goku waved his hands down, attempting to calm her down, "Alright, I think I got it, you can tell me about it later, I'm pretty sure you two aren't supposed to be here?"

"Yeah, I think it's a better idea for the both of us to know where we're going," said the person who was with Ruby just now.

Goku stared at the person with her, he was a tall young man with blond hair, he wore a white diamond-shaped chestplate and white spaulders with rerebrace. Under the armor, he had a black hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. He also wore blue pants with a white patch on the left knee, with a sword on his left side.

Ruby decided it would be a good idea to introduce him to Goku, "Umm, Goku, this is Jaune, he's my..." Ruby turned her head to Jaune, "Can we be considered friends or just strangers?"

"Friends, at the very least, I think. Nice to meet you, I'm Jaune Arc," Jaune said as he put his right hand out.

"Hi, my name's Goku, I'm a security guard here," Goku said with a smile as he shook Jaune's hand.

"Wait, wait, wait. You're a security guard now?" Ruby thought for sure he was a student here, you know, since he was older than both her and Yang.

"A lot of things happened, anyway, aren't you two supposed to be at the amphitheater right now?" Goku asked as he scratched his neck.

"Yeah, the thing is…we're lost, so do you know where we need to go?" Jaune was a bit nervous talking to the guy in front of him since the faunus was actually older than him, sure the guy wasn't taller than him, but just the fact that the guy was pulling a giant boulder and wasn't fatigued by it unnerved him.

"You guys just have to turn back and move straight, then you're there," Goku said as he pointed his index finger in the direction he was facing.

"Wait what! So you're telling me we've been going in the opposite direction this whole time?" Jaune was sure that they were at least going in the right general direction.

"Yup," Goku stated simply.

"Alright then, there's no time to waste, let's go Jaune. I'll see you after the ceremony Goku!" Ruby then started to run to their destination as Jaune followed her lead. Goku continued his daily training while hoping he'll talk with the two sisters soon.

* * *

Once the ceremony was finished, Yang and Ruby immediately met up with Goku again. They were now sitting on a bench outside the ballroom, enjoying the scenery.

"You know, this is nice," Ruby said as she sat in the middle between them.

Yang agreed with her little sister, "Yeah, it's been a long time since the three of us got together and just… talk."

"So, what did I miss when I was gone?" Goku asked.

Ruby instantly raised her hands while jumping out and down excitedly, attracting the other twos' attention.

"Ahem, let me tell you the time when one of Yang's dates accidentally pulled out her hair, Yang got so mad that she tossed him to the other side of the building when that happened," Ruby happily said.

Yang thought that two could play this game, "Oh yeah? Ruby here once slept with her weapon Crescent Rose, she even had drool all over it."

Ruby was about to chew her sister's arm for that but Yang was able to out maneuver her by putting Ruby in a headlock. Ruby was struggling to get out of her sister's hold, it wasn't painful but she definitely didn't want to be positioned like this. Goku, on the hand, had one question in his mind after hearing the two talking about their past events.

"What's a date?"

The two sisters shared a look and shrugged, this was Goku after all, it was nothing new, "Meh, you'll find out one day by yourself. Anyway, tell us one of your adventures in details," Yang said as Ruby finally got out of her sister's hold and nodded to Yang's suggestion.

Goku poked his head several times, trying to remember. After a few seconds of recollecting his memories, he finally recalled one that he could tell the two, "Alright, I remember this one time when…"

Their conversation was cut short as Glynda walked by them and stared at Goku, "Mr. Son, Ozpin has summon you to his office for your first task, I suggest you present yourself immediately," Glynda then left the three alone after she sent Ozpin's message to the young man.

"Now what should I do?" Goku was having a hard time deciding here, Ozpin needed him but he didn't want to leave the two sisters without telling his story.

"It's fine, we'll talk more later," Ruby said as she stood up from the bench.

"Welp, can't have you lose your first and probably last job here, so see ya later."

"Bye, I'll probably meet up with you guys tomorrow, try your best tomorrow," Goku said as he smiled sincerely.

The sisters then said their goodbyes to him and went back into the ballroom, preparing for sleep tonight. Goku started walking towards Ozpin's office after they left.

* * *

Ozpin was in his office, sitting in his usual position, sipping a cup of coffee, the only thing that was different was the black suitcase that was on the middle of the table. The silence was broken as Goku entered Ozpin's office.

"So, what do you need me for?" Goku was curious as this was the first time Ozpin called for him about his job, all he's been told at this point was just protecting the school.

"Goku, do you know why I hired you for this job while I could have just as easily made you a student here?" Ozpin certainly had the power to, even if the young man before him never went to any combat school before.

Goku shook his head, "Well, you see, it's because I know you would refuse in a heartbeat. After all, you've only just finished travelling Remnant, you would have mostly likely felt bored with the lessons here."

"Why security guard then?" Goku never thought much about it, but now that Ozpin mentioned it, he was having second thoughts on why he was here.

"It's because your job as a security guard is just a front," Ozpin said simply as he sipped his coffee.

"Uhh, what do you mean by a front?" Goku thought when he was offered the job, it was just beating up bad people that came here, guess he was wrong.

"What I mean is, if you weren't part of the staff or a student here, you wouldn't be allowed to stay at Beacon, I couldn't just make you a teacher here so I considered this to be the best option. This would grant you more freedom to do what you want, and considering your abilities, all I ask is for you to protect the students if the situation ever calls for it, and there will also be times when the teaching staff will ask for your help as well, in fact, you can even go on missions with the students here if one of the professor allows it."

"So, I protect everyone here and help the teachers if they ask?" Goku didn't think that was a bad thing, he just rather trained more than anything else, good thing Beacon was a great place to train.

"In a sense, yes. Now then, for your first task, I need you to prepare something for me in Emerald Forest."

Ozpin then stood up and walked over to the faunus, handing him a black suitcase. Goku was confused until Ozpin started explaining what was inside said suitcase.

"Inside this suitcase is a set of chess piece, I need you to go to the temple in Emerald Forest, you will have to set them up at the pedestals there. These are necessary for tomorrow's initiation, of course, if you want to prepare the test in your own way, go ahead, as long as the chess pieces are on the pedestals," Ozpin considered this to be Goku's own initiation into Beacon.

"So, do I have to find you again after doing this Ozpin? Cause if I do, that sounds like a pain," Goku didn't want to go searching for Ozpin after just running around the forest, it would be night time by then.

"It's fine, I believe in you, Goku. I just hope you would make it interesting for tomorrow's initiation," Ozpin trusted the faunus, he was looking forward to how tomorrow would play out. Goku nodded as he held the suitcase in his left hand and walked out of Ozpin's office, leaving the older man to continue drinking his coffee.

* * *

Goku was currently standing on the cliff on top of Emerald Forest, staring at the sunset. Pulling his power pole from his back, Goku placed his power pole on a boulder and extended his power pole, allowing him to view the forest from an overhead view, making it easier to search for the temple.

It wasn't long before he was able to find it, once he got there, he started placing the chess pieces on the pedestals, as he was setting up the chess pieces on the pedestals, he was thinking of a way to make it fun and challenging for the students tomorrow. After putting the last one, a flash of inspiration struck Goku's head, he then walked to the center of the temple and unstrapped his power pole.

Goku stuck it on the ground, letting it stand in place, Goku held on to it tight, "Power Pole EXTEND!" Goku was holding on to it as the power pole kept getting longer and longer. Once it stopped, he now stood at the top of his pole, he cupped both of his hands and screamed at the top of his lung, unleashing a Kamehameha wave towards the sky, splitting the clouds apart. Alarmed by the sudden beam of light, the Grimm were slowly gathering around the temple.

Looking down, Goku noticed there were a lot Grimm gathered down there, there were Beowolves, Ursai and even a Death Stalker. He felt excited at the thought that the students would have an all-out fight with the Grimm here tomorrow, he even wanted to fight them all by himself right now but luckily, he was able to restrain himself. As he was about to jump off the pole, he noticed a giant Nevermore was flying straight at him, he figured it wanted to perch on his pole and he was in the way of that.

Just as it was about to tackle him, Goku jumped onto its back and held on to its feathers. The Nevermore immediately noticed him on its back, it tried to shake him off but Goku was holding on to it tight. Once he was able to stand on it, Goku kicked its back as hard as he could, causing the nevermore to lose flight. Goku took the chance to jump off it as the Nevermore kept falling. Once he landed on the ground, he noticed the day was already dark. He figured it would be a good idea to sleep here, it wouldn't be the first time after all. Goku climbed up to one of the nearby trees and decided to sleep on one of its branches. Since most of the Grimm were gathered near the temple because of his power pole, it was safe for him to sleep there. He then went into slumber, anticipating of what tomorrow might hold for him.


	9. Hunting

"Yang, is that what I think it is?"

"Yup, this has Goku's fingerprints all over it."

Currently, the two sisters, along with the other students were gathered on top of a cliff, both Ozpin and Glynda were standing directly in front of them. The moment the students came up here, they were immediately alerted by the presence of a red rod that was protruding out of Emerald Forest, what concerned them was the gigantic black figure that was on top of it. The sisters, on the other hand had a somewhat vague idea on how the initiation will turn out, knowing that Goku had a hand in all this.

Even Glynda rose an eyebrow upon seeing the scene before her but since she was already informed about the faunus's involvement, she shrugged it off as she coughed to get the students' attention.

"Now then, seeing as I have given you all the basic summary of today's objective yesterday, I see no reason to delay this anymore than I should, Glynda," Ozpin said as he gestured her to start initiating the panels to launch the students.

As the students were launched one by one, Jaune had a question that he just needed an answer to as he raised his right arm.

"Umm, sir, what exactly is that?" Jaune asked as he pointed to the red pole that was sticking out like a sore thumb, sure, he also wanted to know how he was gonna land but after thinking about it a lot yesterday, he had a gut feeling that he would be ignored if he asked that.

Ozpin couldn't help but chuckled at that question, seeing as he himself was left in the dark, "Even I have no idea, perhaps you could find out for me?"

Before Jaune could answered that, he was immediately launched into the air, following the other students as he screamed. Ozpin silently drank his coffee as he watched them go, Glynda was about to ask him something before a figure jumped on to the cliff.

"Aww, I didn't make it before they went to the temple, oh well," the spiky-hair figure said as he tried to locate the students. The other two that were at the scene could only stare silently at the faunus.

The silence was broken as Ozpin had something to tell the young faunus, "Seeing as you have time on your hands, Port informed me that he needed you for something, do you mind if you help out?"

"Aww, but I wanted to practice my techniques a bit..." Goku whined as he put both his hands down.

"You might even get the chance to, he just might surprise you," It was true, Port had surprised him on a few occasions.

"Alright, fine," Goku then ran as fast he could back to Beacon.

As the faunus left, Ozpin then turned his head toward Glynda, "What do you think of this year's initiation, Glynda?"

"In all honesty, it's much better than I expected. The situation forces the students to cooperate with every one of their peers, which results in having a better chance at completing their objective," Glynda really was surprised, this was an extremely effective way of getting the students to work together, something they'll need if they ever want to become huntsmen.

"Yes, and that's why I'm looking forward to how he'll affect Beacon entirely during his stay here."

* * *

In the lecture hall, Port was polishing one of his prize trophies, a Beowolf head. Once he was done, he proceeded to admire the trophies in front of him. His admiration for it was interrupted as a spiky-hair faunus walked into the room.

"So, what do you need me for?" Goku ask as he looked around and was a bit disturbed by how many trophies there were on the wall.

"Ah, Goku my lad. I need your help on this dangerous…treacherous…life-threatening…mission," Goku was trembling with excitement as Port continued to describe his task.

Port then put both of his hands on Goku's shoulder, "Come go hunt Grimm with me, I need to capture one of them, it's needed to prepare something for the students tomorrow."

Goku blinked his eyes a few times before he could process what the older man just said, "That's it? That won't be very fun, I rather fight real people," Goku didn't particular like fighting the Grimm, not because they were weak, because most of them were boring to him.

"Nonsense my boy, we're going to the an open plain near mountain Glenn, there's recently been a huge gathering of Grimm and the people of Vale are afraid of any potential dangers, so it's good for all parties if we handle this."

"It just doesn't sound much like a challenge," Goku whined.

"I promise you it would at least be challenging for a warrior like yourself, who always strive to get better, why…I remembe-"

Goku had to interrupt his speech and shook his hand, "Alright then, so where should I find you after I changed my clothes?" Goku apparently couldn't go out on missions with his training gi, Glynda called it unprofessional-like, and since he was a staff member now, he would have to change into something more satisfactory.

"Just meet me at the docking station," Port stated as if a matter of fact. Goku then left, letting Port the chance to continue admiring his trophies.

* * *

Port was currently standing at the courtyard, standing behind him was a bullhead that was preparing to fly. Goku then stepped out from the building, wearing a new attire. Goku was now wearing a black gi with a red coat that was over him, black training boots and a blue sash attached around his waist, there was also a small pouch hanging around his sash. Port was impressed by Goku's attire, in fact, he might even want to take the young faunus on any of his future hunting trips.

"Not bad, my boy. You should wear that more often, it reminds of ...me!"

"Meh, I don't like to wear it very much but Glynda told me I have to when I go out with you guys..."

"Well then, enough of that, let us head to our destination," The two then walked off into the bullhead that was preparing to fly off.

* * *

On a plain near Mountain Glenn, a large group of Boarbatusks were roaming around, looking as if they were preparing for war. Port and Goku were hiding behind a bush, watching their movements.

"Why are we hiding here?" Goku whispered to the older man.

"Well, my lad, any good hunter knows that to catch his prey, he needs to know when to strike his prey," He himself should know since he was a hunter during his prime.

"But they're always in group…" Goku knew this due to his experiences when he was travelling the world.

"Alright fine, I only need one of them for tomorrow's class."

"Leave it to me!" Goku said confidently as he stood up and ran to the open fields. Port merely stroked his mustache in interest.

As Goku got closer, one of the Grimm noticed his presence. Alerting its kind, a few of them were now running towards him. Goku took a deep breath as he extended both his hands, creating a small energy sphere and blasted it toward the Grimm. As the attack was about to hit one of the Grimm, Goku bended it as it goes upward and split into tinier energy spheres, raining from the sky, destroying a great deal of them.

Wasting no time, Goku immediately dashed towards them as they were still confused by the event that just transpired. Once he got closer, he let loose a barrage of punches and kicks on the surrounding Boarbatusks, which knocked some of them down. As the surrounding Grimm started to enclose him, several of them were suddenly cut clean. Goku saw it was Port standing behind their remains, holding an axe.

"Can't let the student surpass the master, can I?" Port said as he confronted the other Boarbatusks on the field. Goku returned his attention to his own fight, immediately noticing one of them was charging at him. Just as it was about to hit him, Goku grabbed on hold to both of its tusks, using all his strength to spin it around several times, causing the other Grimm to stop their charge because they couldn't get near him., After Goku spun it several times, he then let go of its tusk, causing it to be flung towards its own kind. Goku put on a grin and posed in his martial art stance, readying himself for a fight that was going to last a for some time.

* * *

Several hours later, the two were now sitting on the ground resting, with a small Boarbatusk nearby in a cage that was prepared by Port.

"Well now, that took some time, didn't it my lad?" Port was happy that someone was accompanying him in one of his hunts.

"Yeah, but they weren't very fun to fight," Goku complained as he felt the fight they just had was just long, not challenging.

Port then stood up,"I suppose it's about time we get back to Beacon," Port lent his hand for Goku to get up.

Once Goku was up, a loud roar was heard, immediately alerting the two of the sudden noise. Port looked around but found nothing, Goku on the other hand was looking at the sky. Port was confused until he saw what the young faunus was looking at. Something dropped from the sky, causing the ground to form dust clouds, blurring both of their vision of the creature before them. Once the dust settle, what they saw was something that was not commonly sighted.

It was a large quadrupedal wyvern-like creature, it had red eyes, a massive head and jaws with powerful limbs, its entire body was covered in black with white striped colouration on it. It had black scaly skin, bone-like structure covering its chest, forelimbs that also have wings on it allowing it to fly, the top of its head was tipped with a pair of horn-like ears and a segmented tail with a spiny protrusion.

Port had to rub his eyes just to believe what he was seeing in front of him, "Is that a Saugris? My, that's a Grimm that has been rarely sighted," the hunter in him couldn't contain himself, he'd never seen a Grimm like this in all his years.

Goku was excited, he could feel it, this Grimm that was in front of him was strong, not one of the strongest he ever fought, but still strong. He then got into his martial art stance, preparing to battle the Grimm. "I think you should stand back, I wanna fight this thing alone."

Port was thinking hard about this, on one hand, he himself wanted to kill the Grimm but on the other, he wanted the young one to have a shot. "Very well, although do know, if it gets out of hand, I'm joining in," Port then started pushing the cage to a safer area but the Saugris sprung into action, Goku in turn jumped right in front of it and kicked its head, diverting its attention from Port.

Once the faunus got on ground, the Grimm opened its mouth and tried to bite him. Luckily, due to Goku's strength, he was able to stop the thing from completely chomping him as he held both of its teeth. The Grimm tried to shake Goku off but the monkey faunus jumped backwards as its mouth closes. What the Grimm did next suprised Goku as it spun itself while somehow getting closer to him, its tail was able to hit the faunus in the gut and tossed him a few feet away. As Goku got up again, he grinned as he was excited about the fight because he actually felt that attack. The Grimm wasted no time as it puts its claw on the ground, pushing it forward, causing the ground to crack and form boulders that were pushed to the air. Goku jumped onto one of them and jumped once again to get to higher grounds. Once he got high enough in the air, he cupped both of his hands back and started charging his Kamehameha wave, small energy particles started gathering around his hands as he descended. The Saugris, however let out an powerful roar, strong enough to form cracks on the ground and destroy the nearby boulders, damaging the surrounding area all together.

"-HAAAAA!" The beam was launched from his hands and collided with the sound wave. Seeing as the two attacks were equal, Goku decided to put more energy into it, the beam got bigger as he screamed louder. The now boosted Kamehameha wave penetrated the attack and hit the Grimm straight on its head. Once he landed on the ground, he prepared himself as he knew the Grimm wasn't down for the count just yet. What came out of the smokes was the Saugris leaping at him, Goku immediately back stepped to avoid being trampled on by the thing and used his tail to hook around the Saugris's left wing and tossed himself up to its face and landed a few hard punches and an upper kick to its head, staggering it. Once Goku landed back on the ground, Goku landed another hit, kicking it in the chest with everything he got, sending the Saugris further away from him. Goku watched as the it got back up to its feet and started charging at him at high speed, he dodged to the right as the Saugris went right past him, the faunus kept dodging as it kept charging at him, he decided that it was about time to finish this as he created multiple afterimages, confusing the Grim as it tried to charge at all of the images.

Goku was standing a bit further away from it, in his hand was what seem to be a white Dust Crystal. Goku didn't think he would have to use it considering he hadn't perfected the technique yet, but without his power pole, it was hard to end this fight quickly. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the Dust in his hands. After a few seconds, the Dust crystal was gone as Goku's hand glowed white. As the Grimm finally noticed the real one, it charged yet again to try getting a hit on him. As the Saugris got closer and closer, Goku jumped toward the Grimm, just as it was about to bite Goku, the faunus twisted his body around, just enough to avoid the attack and delivered an uppercut to the Grimm's neck. The instant his fist connected to the Grimm's neck, a flurry of wind came out of his hand, cutting the Grimm's neck clean off. The head was sent spinning in the air until it dropped back to the ground, rolling on the ground as its body became lifeless.

Port was watching the scene around the bushes. He astounded by the young man before him, to think the young faunus was able to defeat one of the more dangerous type of Grimm that ever lived. He was actually proud of the young faunus, if Goku was a student, why he would even called him his favourite but alas, it was not to be. Even so, he was still impressed by the faunus's strength as he came out of the bush and walked closer to the young man.

"Well done my lad, not many people can claim they've beaten the monstrous Saugris," There really weren't, Saugris were known to be seen by few, usually in Vacuo or Atlas but most of them were just rumors, he did wonder why such a Grimm would suddenly appear like that. Port once tried to find one, but he couldn't, even in his younger days.

Goku was a bit tired from that fight, mostly because he just used that dust technique but he felt that was a good fight just now. "Yeah, that was great training, thanks for taking me here."

"No thanks necessary, my lad. Too bad I couldn't have a tussle with it. Why, if I was there..." Port rambled on as the two continued to walk back to the bullhead as Goku pulled the rope connecting to the Boarbatusk's cage.

* * *

"Can you tell me again why exactly are we wandering around like this?"

Ruby and Yang were currently walking around the main avenue, along with their respective partners. The one who voiced out her irritation, who was also Ruby's partner was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Company. She had long white hair which wass pulled back in an off-center ponytail, at the base of which was a small tiara. She wore a pale blue bolero jacket over a dress with a piece of black lace making up the neckline of the dress. an apple-shaped necklace along with a pair of thin, rectangular earrings. She wore white, heeled wedge boots that go to mid-calf.

"I told you, ice queen, I need to get this thing back to my best friend," Yang said as she pointed her head towards the power pole in her hands.

"I told you not to call me that!" Weiss yelled as she showed her clear displeasure at that name.

The other person who was walking with them while reading a book was Blake Belladonna, Yang's partner. She had long, wavy black hair and amber eyes. She wore a black ribbon tied in the form of a bow, black low-heeled boots and stockings that start off black at her hips, but gradually fade to purple as they near her shoes, black ribbons on both of her arms, with a black detached sleeve and a silver band on her left arm, a black buttoned vest with coattails, and a white sleeveless undershirt that exposes part of her midriff with white shorts that may be connected to her shirt.

Yang slapped her forehead, as if she realized something, "Hey Rubs, why don't you just fly on Nimbus and search for the guy?"

"If I do that, Weiss is just gonna get all grouchy again..." When Ruby tried letting Weiss to ride on Nimbus earlier, it didn't exactly go too well.

"Well, it's not my fault that piece of cotton was not functioning properly," Weiss scoffed as she turned her head away from her partner, she was miffed when she discovered the reason why she couldn't ride Nimbus.

"She is the only one among us that could be described as, pure of heart," Blake stated as of matter of fact as she flipped through a page in her book.

"Yup, so you better call Nimbus, Rubs," Yang said as she needed to find the guy.

"Fine..., Nim-" Ruby was interrupted as a figure fell down from the sky, landing near them, causing dustclouds to form. Once it subsided, they saw it was Goku, dusting his clothes.

"Hey guys! I see you made some new friends! How did the initiation go?" Goku said cheerfully as he grinned.

"It was so cool! We were all like superheroes, banding together to kick evil's butt," Rub felt great fighting with all of them like that.

"So, it was you! Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get through that wall of Grimm?" Weiss said as she walked closer to the faunus while pointing at him. She absolutely hated fighting that hoard, they were just relentless.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad ice queen, it was pretty fun bashing their heads," Yang indeed had fun punching them left and right.

While the four were conversing, Blake had a look of surprise upon seeing the monkey faunus, that surprise disappeared as it returned to her usual expression. Yang decided that it was about time she gave him what he forgot.

"Here, you forgot this," Yang said as she handed the power pole to Goku.

"Oh, thanks," Goku said as he strapped it around his back.

"Now, the real question is why were you falling down just now?" Weiss didn't particular care but she didn't exactly like someone who was breaking common sense, Ruby she could tolerate but this musclehead was another story. She would have thought this kind of reckless behaviour would come from Ruby, apparently she was wrong.

"Who are you again?" Goku said as he scratched his head.

"Weiss Schnee," Weiss stated as a matter of fact.

"Ok?" That response didn't particularly go well with her, she had to put up with Ruby yesterday and especially today, she was definitely not going to with this one.

Ruby had to cover Weiss's mouth, she had the distinct sense of déjà vu that something similar to her first meeting with Weiss would happen. As the heiress struggled to get Ruby's hand off her, Yang decided to introduce her partner to him. She then put her left arm over Blake's shoulder.

"And this is Blake, my partner," Blake only raised her arms while still putting more attention on her book.

"So what's your team's name?" Goku was told of Ruby being the leader from Ozpin after he got back with Port.

"Team RWBY!" Ruby said excitedly.

"Doesn't that get confusing?"

"No...OK, just a teensy bit." Ruby said awkwardly as she was still covering Weiss's mouth.

"Well, it's been nice meeting you guys, but I got something to do, see ya!" Goku waved as he ran in the opposite direction.

After they gave him their goodbyes, Blake realized something throughout their conversation and felt that she had to point it out to her partner, "You do know that you forgot to ask him why he was falling from the sky, right?" Weiss could only grumble in response.


	10. A Small Step

Goku, as usual, was doing his daily training. He was currently balancing himself on top of one of the school buildings, using his right index finger to support his weight. As he continued to concentrate on his training, he noticed team RWBY and another team with them running around the courtyard. Once they entered the building, Goku decided to jump down from the top of the building and descended near Ozpin and Glynda, who were also at the scene.

Once the two noticed the monkey faunus, Glynda immediately put on a stern face when facing the young faunus, she had wanted to scold the faunus since yesterday, "Mr. Son, I advise you not to damage any of the buildings here with any of your training, you may have been granted freedom to do whatever you want, however I'll not allow you to further damage any of the school building," Glynda warned him.

"Yes, we wouldn't want another incident like yesterday, do we? Even if Glynda here could perfectly repair it," Ozpin chuckled lightly at his last words as Glynda stared at at him.

* * *

_Ozpin was signing paperwork in his office as Glynda scrolled through her tablet. Suddenly, the window behind them broke as someone broke through the glass. The culprit was of course Son Goku, the faunus then stood up as he faced the both of them._

_"Hey, here to tell you we just got back from hunting," Goku said with a satisfied smile._

_"Judging from your smile, I take it you enjoyed yourself?"_

_Goku had a wide grin on his face as he answered Ozpin, "Yeah! It was more fun than I thought, maybe I should go on more of those missions, maybe...Later."_

_Without saying any further, Goku turned his back to both of them and jumped off the building, leaving the two behind. Ozpin said nothing as Glynda begrudgingly put the glass pieces back together by waving her wand._

* * *

Goku could only laugh lightly at the mention of yesterday's event. He didn't want to waste time at the time so he jumped off from the bullhead when it was still in mid-air. In fact, he was only able to meet up with team RWBY because he jumped out of Ozpin's office.

"As punishment, you are going to clean the entire school, every nook and cranny of it," Glynda said sternly.

"Aww, come on, there's gotta be something else I can do..." Goku whined as he begged the huntress.

Glynda was unfazed by this, she was determined to teach the young faunus a lesson here, that following the rules was important, not only to the students, but to the staff as well.

"Young man, you need to learn that not everything in life revolves mainly around combat, I am just making you see there are other things beside those."

Ozpin was silently watching the conversation that was happening before him, he rather not be involved in this conversation, as he had a certain feeling how all this would turn out if he did. After various scolding from Glynda, Goku finally gave in as he started to walk into the main building with a defeated sigh.

"You know? It wasn't that much of an issue."

"Don't give me that, that boy needs to know not everything is going to be simple."

Ozpin merely smiled in response. It seemed to him that Glynda cared about the young faunus in her own way.

* * *

Goku was currently standing behind the school building, with a bucket on the ground. He then lifted it up and started cleaning the windows with the cloth inside said bucket. As Goku kept cleaning the window, a familiar voice caught his attention as he turned his head to the source of the voice.

"Goku, what exactly are you doing there?"

The person before him was a bunny faunus with long, brown hair and brown eyes. She had a pair of long, brown rabbit ears, she was also wearing the school uniform that each student of Beacon wore. The person who was talking to him was Velvet Scarlatina, Goku met her during his first day as a school guard, along with her teammates.

"Hey Velvet! I'm doing this cause Glynda wanted to teach me a lesson or something," Goku then started to stare at his surroundings left and right, and whispered something to the other faunus.

"Coco's not here right?" Velvet lightly chuckled at Goku's question, the instant her leader laid eyes on him on his first day here, Coco tried hard, very hard to fix Goku's hairstyle and outfit. To say the least, Goku was not pleased at all at the time, considering the first time how her leader met him, it was no surprise to Velvet Goku was being careful.

"Don't worry, it's just me, Coco and the others have something to do at the moment," Goku was relieved at the news, he never wanted his hair to be pulled around like that ever again, it hurt a lot.

"So, what do you need me for?" Goku said as he stared at her with an innocent look on his face, he then pressed his left hand on the window to clean it.

"Oh, since you're here, I had something that I wanted to ask you..." As Velvet was about to tell him her request, the sound of a window breaking was heard. Pieces of glass were thrown to Goku's face, immediately alerting Velvet as she got closer to the monkey faunus's face and held out her hand to check on any injuries.

"Goku, are you okay? Hold on a second, I'll grab some—," Just as Velvet was about to pull something out, Goku stopped her as he smiled innocently and shook his hands around.

"It's fine, don't worry about it, I'm just wondering how that thing broke just now," Goku was confused, all he did was put his hand on the window, and as he put a bit of his strength into it, the window just suddenly broke.

Velvet had an awkward smile on her face, this reminded her of another incident similar to the situation right now when Goku first came here. Well, it was what led her and her team to meet the faunus, so she was grateful for that.

"It's probably due to your strength, Goku..."

"What...I was sure I wasn't using my ki when I was cleaning that," Velvet only kept quiet, having witnessed his strength upon her first meeting with the monkey faunus, she wasn't really surprised by what just happened, he might just be as strong as Yatsuhashi in her opinion. After checking on his injuries and finding no injuries, she released her hands from Goku's cheeks.

"Then, what do you suppose we do with this?" Velvet asked as she pointed to the shards on the ground.

"I guess I have to pick it all up," Goku then started bending his body to reach for the pieces on the ground.

Seeing this, Velvet felt she had to help the other faunus out. "Do you mind if I help you out on that?"

Goku looked around the area before he put his focus on Velvet again, "Sure, just don't let Glynda find out, I kinda don't want to make it worse than it should."

A footstep was heard as Goku finished that sentence, Velvet had a nervous look on her face and Goku slowly turn his head around to see the person behind him. It was just as the monkey faunus expected, Glynda Goodwitch was staring at him with an icy cold expression on her face while tapping on the ground impatiently.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Son?" Glynda had a hunch when she was patrolling the school, so she came back to check on the faunus just in case, it seemed she hit the nail on the head. Goku could only smiled apologetically while Velvet was inwardly panicking, Glynda let out a sigh as she waved her wand, putting the shards back together to its original state.

"It looks to me that this task is unsuitable for you. I'll have to rearrange another fitting punishment," Glynda said sternly.

"Oh come on! Can't I just get back to my training?" Goku whined.

"No, not until you learn something. Meet me at the courtyard in a few minutes," Having said her piece, Glynda left the two faunus alone. Velvet then let out a relieved sigh while Goku crossed his arms.

"Jeez, all I want to do is just get to training again..."

"How I see it, she's just looking out for you, Goku,"

"Yeah, I guess…so, Velvet, what do you want from me again?"

Velvet quickly shook both her hands, "Oh, I'll ask you another time when you're less busy, see you later Goku," She bid him goodbye as she ran back inside. After she left, Goku started walking to the courtyard to meet up with Glynda.

* * *

Once he got there, he noticed Glynda was standing there, waiting for him.

"Now, I need you to tilt the land here, the school has been thinking of taking up farming, I think this would be an excellent task for you this time, Mr. Son."

"So, all I gotta do is farm? I can do that!" Goku said confidently.

"Very well then, I'll leave you to it, the seeds are right here," Glynda said as she pointed to the bag on the ground. Glynda then left Goku on his own.

Goku began digging the field using both his arms. As minutes past, piles of dirt continued to be piled on the ground. Once Goku finally finished, he wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

"Man, this sure reminds me of the old days," it reminded him of the time when he was living with Ruby and Yang.

"Now all I have to do is..." Before he could finish his sentence, he noticed two figures were approaching him, it was Yang and Blake. His best friend was waving her hands at him while Blake was still engrossed in her reading.

"How's it going?" Yang then noticed the mess that was in front of her, "Let me guess, you got in trouble for destroying things again?" Knowing her best friend, this scenario seemed the most plausible to her.

"Yeah...Glynda didn't really like me damaging some parts of the buildings..." Goku said as he scratched his head.

Blake closed her book, "I don't think that is any different."

"Umm...You think?"

Blake only stared silently at the faunus before her, this was her first time talking to him but from the small chat they had just now, he was just like how she imagined the first time she saw him.

"By the way, where's Ruby and…who was that other person again, was it Whis?" Goku asked as he honestly couldn't remember the white hair girl's name in all honesty.

Yang couldn't hold it in anymore as she laughed uncontrollably, "Oh man, I can't wait till ice queen hears about this," She said as she wiped her tears. Even Blake was chuckling for a moment.

"Anyway, if you're wondering where those two are, they kinda…had a bit of a fight so they're probably trying to avoid each other, me and Blakey here are just going back to our room so those two can work it out," normally, she would help Ruby out as much as she could, but she felt that this time, Ruby had to try and settle things her own way with Weiss, she couldn't always be there for her little sister even if she wanted to.

"Oh, I hope they're fine then..."

"Need any help cleaning this place?" Yang asked since she didn't had anything to do right now.

"Nah, it's ok. If Glynda saw you two helping me out, she's gonna go ballistic," Goku said nervously.

Yang put on a warm smile, "Well, since you got this covered, I think we'll leave you to it, come on Blake," Yang called to her partner as she started to walk back to the dorms.

As Blake started following her partner, she turned around and faced the monkey faunus.

"Do you...enjoy working like this?" Blake asked as she had wanted to ask him this ever since she saw a faunus like him here as a part of the staff.

Noticing the black-hair girl asking him that sudden question, it took a while before he could answer her, "I guess?I mean, I can't travel around anymore but…I still got to meet Ruby and Yang again, I can still train so it's not so bad."

"I see...," Blake said nothing as she turned to the opposite direction and waved her hand towards Goku.

With both of them gone, Goku put his attention back to the mess that was in front of him.

"Alright, let's do this!" Goku said enthusiastically.

* * *

As Goku was done putting the seeds in the ground, a small figure suddenly crashed onto him, causing the unknown person to fall down. Goku looked down to see who it was, it turned out to be Ruby, rubbing her head sorely.

"Ruby? What are you running off to?" Goku asked as he pull Ruby up from the ground.

"Uhh, I remember I had to...sorry Goku, but I gotta get back quick, meet with you later," with that, Ruby zipped right past him and disappeared. Goku stared blankly at the rose petals that were left behind and merely continued his work.

* * *

Once everything was settled, Goku took noticed of his work and he was satisfied with it. The seeds were planted and there was no mess to be found, he was sure Glynda wouldn't get mad at him for this one, hopefully. He was about to find Glynda before an open palm appeared in front of him as he turned his back around.

"Halt! Have you seen Ruby anywhere?" Weiss Schnee commanded.

"She just went that a way," Goku pointed to the direction of the dorm.

"I see, she went back to our room, that's perfect," Weiss lifted her skirt slightly as she bowed to the faunus.

"Do not get the wrong idea, I'm just showing my appreciation, the only reason I'm associating with you is because of your association with my partner," Weiss still didn't exactly like how boneheaded the faunus was, but since her partner treats him like family, it would be of no use to avoid him completely.

"Aww come on, don't be like that Whis, I thought we were friends," Goku said as he slapped her back, making Weiss losing her balance for a bit.

Weiss was getting irritated by the way the faunus acted, "Let me clarify something, number one, my name is Weiss, not Whis, how you mistook my name for whiskey is beyond me. Two, when were we ever friends? Three, do you not know how to treat a person respectfully?"

Goku could only scratched his head and smiled apologetically, Weiss merely sighed in response, "Nevermind, if I stay here any longer, I won't be able to apologize to Ruby."

"Oh, so you do want to make it up to her. Then, go get her."

"I didn't need you to tell me that!" Weiss face reddened as she left to go back into the dorms.

Goku was happy that the two were going to make up, he didn't want Ruby to have a bad time during her stay here.

"It seems you did a good job, I'm impressed Mr. Son," Glynda congratulated as she walked slowly towards the faunus. Goku yelped as he heard the older woman's voice, he was seriously beginning to think she was a ghost or something.

"Now all the school has to do is find someone to take care of them," Glynda said as she looked down to the fields.

"I don't mind doing it," Goku said nonchalantly.

It took Glynda a moment before she realized what the spiky-haired faunus just said, "I'm surprised, I would have thought you would be the last person to say that."

"Well, I still rather train, but doing this kinda reminds me of when I was a kid, so it's not so bad. Plus, there's not a lot of things I can do here beside training… "

Glynda smiled a bit upon hearing that, she had always thought the faunus only ever thought of food and fighting, considering how simple his mind worked. It seemed punishing the faunus today at least taught him something, even if it's only ever so slightly.

"Ff you're looking for some training, do come to my classroom tomorrow, I have something prepared for the students, and your presence there would help immensely."

Goku had the biggest smile on his face at that moment.


	11. Promised Fight

"And that ends the match!"

Right now was combat class, the students were all currently gathered in a dim lit room, with two figures in the middle under a bright light, making them stand out.

Jaune was not having a particular great day today, at the moment, he was lying on the ground with his head up, staring at his opponent who was standing in front of him with a cocky smirk. Cardin Winchester was a figure that Jaune, for the life of him could never think of defying. Not only was he tall, which Jaune considered to be one of the factors why the blonde was scared of the guy, but mainly because he almost crushed the young Arc with his mace just now. Jaune was thankful that Professor Goodwitch called off the match, who knew what would happen to him if she didn't.

As Jaune got back up again, he immediately backed away as Cardin took a step forward towards him. Before it escalated any further, Glynda placed her whip between the two, effectively stopping any further confrontation.

"Mr. Winchester, you have won the match, I suggest you get back to your seat," Glynda stated coldly.

Cardin only let out a snort in response as he walked out of the stage, Glynda then turned her attention on the young Arc.

"Mr. Arc, it has been weeks now. If this were a tournament, you have already lost considering..." Glynda trailed off as she pointed to the screen showing an icon of Jaune, and under it, a red bar below him.

"It would be prudent if you check your scroll regularly during battle, adapting to your opponent's style of attack is essential in any battle."

With that, Jaune left the stage disheartened as he wobbled back to his teammates who were worried about him.

"Now then, there will be one more match for today, as for the participants..." Her sentence was cut off as a figure jumped up while rolling in the air, landing on the stage, with the bright lights fully illuminating said person.

Team RWBY instantly recognized it was Goku standing on the stage, grinning like a madman as his tail swung up and down in excitement.

The students were all confused by the faunus's arrival since they could clearly tell by the faunus's attire, he was not a student here.

Glynda decided to fill them in on the spiky-haired faunus's presence, "As the final match for today, I need one of you students to face off against Mr. Son here, though do not underestimate him, he may not be one of the professors here, but his strength is on par with one."

The students didn't know what to do and chattered among themselves, that was…until someone ran towards the stage pushing off the ground with one foot, swinging both legs over the stage and landed on the stage. The person grinned confidently as she stood tall in front of her opponent. Goku was clearly excited, "Alright, this is gonna be fun, right Yang?"

"You bet your butt it's going to be! We had a promise after all," Yang was clearly in agreement with the faunus as she had been looking forward to this fight for years now. Ever since Goku left the island, Yang trained as hard as she could, still using the same basics that Goku taught her before he left. She even had an attack up her sleeve just for this occasion so that she could have the time of her life fighting the faunus.

Glynda looked between the two and sighed, she was certain that some parts of the stage were going to be destroyed due to this, but she had to let it happened since she was the one who invited Goku in the first place.

"Good luck Yang! Goku!" Ruby yelled as she waved her hands to both of the two.

"Who are you cheering for again?" Blake asked her leader.

"Umm, both of them? I mean, I could just support either of them but I don't want them to feel bad, so if I cheered both of them on, then it's a win-win for everyone!" Ruby yelled as she held both her hands up.

"Figures you would think like that. I, on the other hand, will support my teammate wholeheartedly," Weiss said as she rolled her eyes.

Blake was holding a small flag with a picture of Yang in the shape of a heart. The raven-haired girl was waving the flag left and right as a sign to support her partner, even if she was interested in how the faunus will fight in a few minutes.

Next to them was team JNPR, the leader, Jaune was hanging his head down as he was still discouraged by his match with Carding Winchester just now.

"Jaune, I don't want to sound apathetic to your plight earlier, but I highly suggest that you observe this match, especially with Goku being here," his partner, Pyrrha Nikos advised him. She had red hair, tied in a ponytail down to her waist. She wore a light-brown top, a black miniskirt, brown gloves on both her arms, a red drapery that was wrapped around her skirt and high-heeled boots.

"Oh yeah! Woohoo! Go Goku and Yang, wreck each other!"

The person who let a loud voice just now was Nora Valkyrie, a girl with short orange hair and turquoise eyes. Her attire consisted of a white sleeve top that had a tiny heart shape between her cleavage and collarbone and a pink skirt.

"Nora, don't you think that's bad? I don't want to see the combination of you and Goku ever again…"

This person on the other hand was Lie Ren, he had pale pink eyes and long black hair tied into a ponytail. He wore dark green, long-sleeved tailcoat and white pants.

"It's totally fine, Ren and come on… it was just that one time. Really wish I was there fighting right now~" She mused.

Lie Ren was luckily glad his childhood friend wasn't participating in this fight. He wouldn't want to imagine the three of them there, especially with him nearby of all people witnessing the chaos.

Judging from on how three of his teammates talked, Jaune had a funny feeling that they all knew the faunus and decided to ask all three of them to see if he was right, "Hearing you guys talk like that, it's almost like you guys know the guy or something…"

The three stared back at their leader and shrugged, Pyrrha was the one who answered her leader in a cheerful manner, "It appears so."

As the two continued to stare at each other, Glynda finally gave the signal to begin the match.

"Begin!"

Once that was said, Goku immediately dashed across the arena while Yang propelled herself forward by firing off Ember Celica.

"YAAAAAAAA—"

"HAAAAAAAA—"

As the two got closer to each other, Goku pulled a strong right punch, with Yang returning the favor in the same manner. When the two punches collide, they were frozen in place as the two had huge grins on their faces, with both their fists shaking from the impact.

The monkey faunus followed up by swinging his left leg to Yang's head. The blonde ducked the incoming swing and gave a left hook punch to Goku's gut, causing the faunus to be thrown to the ground. Surprising the spectators, the faunus instantly got up as if nothing happened, "Oh man, your punches still hurts a lot!"

Despite what her best friend just said, Yang wasn't convinced at all. She knew the faunus wasn't getting serious yet, so she had to use that one technique she's been wanting to use for a long time.

As Goku prepared himself in his usual stance, he noticed something was off about his opponent. Yang was laying her head down, staring at the ground, unmoving as if she turned into the undead.

It got him confused before something weird really happen. As Yang put her head up again, she was moving really weirdly, waving her arms wildly while bobbing her head back and forth, as if she was drunk.

"Umm, Yang, you okay?" Goku asked out of genuine concern.

"S-s-suuuure ammm! Naw gib me yer bez shot!" Yang said sloppily as she gestured for the faunus to attack.

Goku was sure he saw something like this before, but just couldn't remember where. Regardless, Goku jumped towards his opponent and let out a left hook to hit his opponent. To Goku's surprise, Yang dodged his attack at the last second and quickly smacked his head and kicked him in the back, causing Goku to roll off the ground.

Goku rubbed his head in pain as he slowly got back up, he saw Yang was still in her weird stance, making Goku remember something from a few years ago.

The monkey faunus saw a similar technique when he was at Vacuo, he met someone called the drunken master who had a technique called the drunken fist. Although the master was retired, the old man was kind enough to spar with him a bit. Through their fight, Goku developed his own way of countering the technique.

As Yang continued to move around drunkenly, Goku suddenly got into a trance. His eyes turned all white, his hair spiked up even more wildly in every direction and he quickly jumped around like a wild beast.

This startled everyone outside the stage, the students were not sure what to make of it.

"Haha! Look at him, I knew these faunus would one day act like animals, because they are one!" Cardin Winchester laughed as his team went along with it.

Hearing that, Blake was not pleased by the bully's comment but she let it slide as she was trying to concentrate on the fight.

Weiss Schnee, on the other hand, was bombarding their team leader with various questions, "Ruby, what on Remnant is going on? Your sister is acting drunk, that Goku person is acting crazy, what do you know about all this?"

"How would I know? I mean, it's not like I watch what Yang does every day, that would be creepy. Plus, I only just recently met Goku again…" The two continued to get back and forth while the match was still on.

As the fight continued on, Goku suddenly sprang to the still drunken Yang. Yang snapped out of her state as she was surprised by Goku's sudden behavior and was about to jump out of the monkey faunus's way, until she was stopped by Goku's tail hooking one of her legs, causing the brawler to fall flat on her face. Before she could recover, Goku spun around in the air and gave her back a good kick, forcing the blonde to let out an audible sound of pain. As Goku was preparing for another attack, the blond brawler got up and held the faunus by the collar, throwing him over her shoulder. What the brawler didn't realise was that Goku's tail was still hooked to one of her leg, her throw caused both of them to be dropped hard on the ground.

It didn't stop both of them however, as they quickly got their bearings back and exchanged a series of blows.

Jaune was speechless by the fight that was happening in front of him, but he was also getting a bit frustrated by it too. Comparing the current fight to his own's, it just seemed like he had a long way to go. He really didn't want to be the loser anymore, he didn't want to be the best but Jaune at least wanted to be a better huntsman, something he's failing at ever since he got here.

As Jaune continued to feel frustrated at his lack of ability, a comforting hand was placed on his shoulders. Pyrrha was by his side, with a calm demeanor on her face.

"Jaune, it's fine if your frustrated, it just means you have the spirit of a warrior. If you allow me, I can help you Jaune."

"You're right Pyrrha, it's just I don't want to be the guy that gets kicked around anymore..."

"Believe me Jaune, you won't. I'll help you in every way I can but for now, focus everything you have in this fight."

"Yeah, got it. Thanks Pyrhha, for cheering me up... and for helping me."

"It is my pleasure," Pyrrha said with a sincere smile.

The conversation stopped as sounds of explosions was heard. Yang was shooting explosive rounds at Goku who was running around the arena, dodging the attacks one by one. As Yang reloaded Ember Celica, Goku took this as a chance of opening as he formed multiple after images in various poses, leaving the blonde to stay in the defensive. As she continued to eye all the images, Goku descended from above and headbutted Yang in the shoulder, leaving the brawler in pain as she held her bruised shoulder in pain as Goku back flipped away from her.

"Man, you're stronger than I remembered. Then again, we were just kids back then."

"You too Yang, time we got serious right?"

"You bet!"

On the stands, Jaune couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Wait! You're telling me those two weren't even serious just now?"

"I wanna see some blood already, come on!" Nora yelled in excitement.

"I don't think that Professor Goodwitch would want that, Nora," Ren said to his childhood friend.

"Who cares what she wants, I wanna see explosions and everything falling apart as everyone scream in horror," Ren could only sigh in response.

Yang punched her fists together, fire appearing around her hair. Seeing this, Goku was getting even more pumped up as disappeared into thin air. Noticing the faunus's course of action, Yang let out a grin as she had an idea on how to get around the faunus's speed. Activating Ember Celica, she jumped high up into the air. Once she stopped ascending, Yang fired off Ember Celica to accelerate her descent. Yang then extended her arm, punching the ground as hard she could the instant she landed. The resulting punch created a shockwave, forming various cracks on the ground and a giant dustcloud, obscuring the view for everyone outside the battle.

The students all wanted to know what was currently going on, they suddenly saw a part of the dustcloud moving, what came out was Son Goku, "Man, I didn't expect Yang to do that!"

Multiple explosive blasts quickly came out from the smoke, heading straight for the faunus. Since Goku was up in the air, he had no choice but to deflect the blasts. Putting strength into his hands, Goku deflected some of them but he was unable to block the last blast, hitting him directly in the chest as he fell down.

Glynda was having second thoughts about this fight. Witnessing the fight before her, she felt that it would be a good idea to stop the fight entirely but it wasn't to the extent of someone in critical condition, she supposed it was fine. Although, she would have to reprimand the young man for not giving this fight his all, she chalked it up to the faunus's bad habit. Glynda sighed as she continued observing the match.

As the dust settled, the crowd could see Yang standing in a fighting position, all bruised up but with a confident smirk on her face. Goku, on the other hand, was sprawled on the ground, letting out a small laugh as he slowly got up again.

"That was a great move Yang!"

"Hey thanks, I try…but let's continue this, shall we?" Goku merely nodded in response as the two got into another fist fight. As Yang tried to hit Goku, the spiky-haired faunus was able to get past her defenses and tried to chopped her left shoulder. Unfortunately, he missed and instead chopped off some of Yang's hair.

Yang stared blankly at the strand of hair that just fell off in front of her, even Goku stopped his assault as soon as he saw Yang's strange behavior.

She quietly mumbled something under her breath, "Goku, since you're my best friend, I'm gonna tell you right now, you better prepare yourself!"

Yang's eyes instantly turned red and the fire around her move around wildly, alerting Goku that he did something that he probably shouldn't have.

"This is not good..." the young Ruby Rose said nervously as she saw her big sister mad like that.

"What exactly is happening here?" Weiss asked.

"Well, you see…whenever Yang's hair got cut, even the tiniest bit, she snaps…and everything tends to get er…destroyed."

"That explains on how she acted on the initiation test," Blake added in to their conversation.

"I just hope Goku's okay after this. I know he's strong but I don't think anyone can take on Yang's angry mode."

In a flash, Yang released a hard uppercut to the faunus's gut, launching him in the air. As Goku was still in pain due to Yang's sudden attack, he was unable to do anything as Yang quickly propelled herself upward and punched him back down to the ground, the impact causing pieces of debris to fly off and leaving Goku laying on the ground.

Once Yang was back on the ground, she walked slowly towards her opponent, loud cracking noises being heard as she stomped through the stage.

Goku was thinking hard on his next move, it was clear to him Yang's strength and speed was off the roof right now. He would have to pull something off if he wanted to finish this fight.

Once Yang was closer, she jumped forward and tried to punch the faunus. The instant she made contact, he disappeared. With an angry grunt, Yang looked around her surroundings in clear frustration. As she kept turning her head, she suddenly fell down and felt a strong grip on both her legs. Goku was holding both of Yang's legs, not letting go. Before Yang could even retaliate, Goku swung Yang around in a circular motion a few times before letting go his grip on the brawler. With that motion, Yang was flung to the very end of the stage. It didn't stop her much as Yang quickly got back up again and dashed through the stage as she yelled loudly.

Goku was cupping both of his hands, preparing to fire the Kamehameha. The strangest thing was, Goku was facing backward to Yang. The students were watching the fight intensely as they wanted to see how this fight would end. As Yang got closer and closer, Goku released a small Kamehameha wave, propelling him forward and accelerating his speed. Yang raised her fist up and swung a right hook as hard she could while Goku was preparing to swing his right leg to strike Yang's face. Once they were in breathing contact, Goku mustered everything he could in this one kick.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

"HRRRAAAAAAAAAA—"

The students gasped as the two landed their attack on each other. None of the two were moving, they were just frozen in position like that for a few seconds before something happen. Yang staggered a few seconds and finally fell down while the monkey faunus was still standing. Luckily, Goku was able to lift her up before she dropped to the ground. Holding her behind his shoulder, Goku slowly walked to where Glynda was.

Seeing the damages, Glynda waved her wand to fix the damages done to the stage. The blond brawler finally woke up as Glynda finished patching back the damages.

"Hey! You're awake Yang."

"Yeah, I think I remember some things, sorry about that whole raging on you thing, just try not to do that again," Yang said as she smiled awkwardly.

"I don't know, it was really fun when I was fighting you like that..."

"I'm warning you, you better not."

"Well, it seems to me like both of you don't know when to stop," Glynda scolded the two.

Goku and Yang both shrugged as Glynda continued on, "Miss Xiao Long, You were excellent, thinking of new tactics on your feet, countering Mr. Son's techniques..."

"I'm hearing a but here..." Yang said quietly to her best friend.

"But…you have an incredibly bad temper, especially regarding your hair. Blind rage will be your downfall someday if you do not know how to overcome it," Yang merely stayed silent and nodded her head.

"And you! Mr. Son, you were clearly holding back entirely on this fight," Goku scratched his head as he stuck out his tongue.

"From what I heard from Professor Port, you can clearly do much better," Yang stared at the faunus, it wasn't much of a surprise to her he was stronger, she knew that but she couldn't believe there was still such a gap between them.

"It's a bad habit, I hope you will get rid of it next time."

"Ahahaha..."

"But other than that, good job. It's clear to me that your experience in battle clearly showed here, especially during the last bout, using the length difference to determine the battle," Glynda turned her back to both of them and started talking to the students.

"Man, I can't believe I couldn't hit you on that last one.. and you were still holding back. Alright! Next time we fight, I'm gonna force you to give it everything you got and I'm gonna win to boot, capiche?"

"Yeah, next time will be even more fun!"

The two saw Yang's team walking towards them, with the exception of Ruby running towards them.

"Are you two okay? Wait, that was a dumb question, I mean..." Ruby continued talking as the two best friends shared the biggest smile ever.


	12. Observing

"What exactly am I looking at here?" Weiss Schnee sighed as she witnessed the spectacle beside her.

After the fight between Yang and Goku, class ended when the bell was rung, with Glynda fixing the arena as the students left. Currently, team RWBY and JNPR were sitting in the cafeteria, along with Goku, who was loudly chugging down food as he grabbed them from various plates in front of him while Nora was telling them a recurring dream she had recently.

"This sure takes us back, doesn't it Ruby?" Yang asked her sister as she stared at her best friend.

"Yeah…, sure does," Ruby replied back with a cheerful smile on her face.

"And that's how me, Ren and Goku took over the world!" Nora exclaimed excitedly at the very prospect of doing such a thing one day. Ren, on the other hand, dreaded the very idea and hoped it stayed as a dream. Goku suddenly stopped eating as he had something to tell them, but all it came out were muffled words that they couldn't understand, since food was still stuck in his mouth.

"Umm, Goku. I think it would be better if you swallow your food first before speaking," Pyrrha told him nicely. Goku immediately swallowed his food and started pounding his chest to help with his digestion.

Weiss was understandably disgusted by the act before her. In all her years ever since she was born, she had never seen someone as improper as the faunus before her. She was raised in a civilised household after all. Unfortunately, she had to hold it in as she was still trying to be nice towards the faunus, the keyword being 'trying' because she was at her tipping point.

"What I was trying to say, aren't you guys gonna eat too?" Goku curiously asked as he noticed everyone around him stopped eating after he sat.

"I think all of us just lost our appetite..." Blake answered the faunus. No one could blame them however because anyone would lose their desire to eat after seeing what they just witnessed.

Ignoring them, Goku was about to start eating again but stopped as he heard a familiar voice behind him. The group shifted their focus to the scene that was currently occurring in the cafeteria.

Team CRDL was also at the cafeteria, but they certainly weren't eating like the rest of the students. The leader of the group, Cardin was pulling a faunus's ears, specifically someone Goku knew, Velvet.

Velvet felt a strong pain coming from her ears as it was being tugged strongly at the moment, but she didn't want to fight back, that would only lead to more conflict. Seeing as faunus weren't generally looked at in good light, she had no choice but to withstand the pain.

Cardin was certainly having the time of his life, punishing a stupid faunus while seeing her squirm in pain, it just felt so satisfying to him. However, he also wished he could do that to one other person, Pyrrha Nikos. She was a good for nothing know-it-all that just annoyed him to no end. She was certainly an annoyance to him, alongside with the filthy faunus infesting the place. Putting his attention back on the act at hand, he continued pulling Velvet's ears with even more force, but was stopped by someone's outstretched hand.

Goku, suffice to say, wasn't exactly pleased that someone was bullying his friend, especially someone like Velvet, one of the people he managed to befriend on his first day here.

"Can you stop doing that? It would be like someone pulling my tail," Goku said sternly as he told the leader of team CRDL.

Velvet had a concerned face as she stared at the monkey faunus, she wasn't worried about him being hurt, certainly not…but she hoped this didn't escalate into something more serious.

"Oh? You mean like this?" Russel Thrush, also one of the members of team CRDL, said as he grabbed on to the spiky-haired faunus's tail and gripped on it tightly.

Seeing what was happening before her, Ruby immediately got worried, "Oh no! Yang, doesn't it hurt Goku whenever someone pulls his tail, I mean really hurt…" Ruby winced as that memory was still present in her mind.

The other two of team RWBY and Team JNPR were certainly surprised by this little detail. Goku, who was strong enough to hold back and defeat Yang in combat, had a weakness as obvious as that.

"Yeah..., I think we should help him out a bit," Yang said slowly as she pulled up her sleeve, looking as she was preparing to take the entirety of team CRDL all on. Before anyone could stop Yang, Goku suddenly spoke, as if what Russel was doing wasn't affecting him at all.

"Could you let go? That's not very nice..." Goku said quietly.

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it freak?" Russel taunted as he was confident that the four of them could take him on.

"This!" In an instant, Goku swung his tail up hard, hanging Russel in mid-air. Russel was frightened by the sudden movement, as he cling his entire body towards Goku's tail, never letting go.

"Geez, are you really that scared? It's not even that high," after the faunus said that, he slammed his tail towards the ground, hurting Russel and causing him to lose his hold on the faunus's tail.

Cardin quickly changed his attention from Velvet to Goku now, as he was getting more pissed at the monkey faunus for making fun of them. He grabbed Goku by the shirt, letting out a glare as he threatened the spiky-haired faunus.

"Don't get cocky freak! Don't think you can save your own kind just because you're not a student here. Even if you have a job and you beat the blondie over there, an animal is still a filthy animal."

Goku merely blinked innocently before disappearing into thin air, surprising everyone nearby. Cardin looked around, trying to pinpoint the faunus's current location. Before he could react, Goku reappeared behind him and delivered a swift chop to the bully's neck, rendering him unconscious and dropping to the ground. The other three of team CRDL were scared off their pants after witnessing their leader got defeated so easily.

"Don't worry, he'll wake up in a few minutes so you should probably carry him somewhere to rest," Goku said as he stared at the other members of team CRDL. They heeded the faunus's advice as they carried their leader out of the cafeteria.

"Thank you Goku, although I hope nothing bad comes out of this..." Velvet said as she rubbed her ears.

"It's fine, I didn't hurt them too much, it was a pretty weak chop," Goku stated simply.

Velvet decided that now would be a good time to tell the martial artist of her request from last time, "I've been wanting to ask of you this for some time now but…could you possibly train me Goku?" Velvet hoped that Goku would accept her request but she also hoped that the martial artist wouldn't ask why.

"Sure! I finally got someone to train with so this will be great!" Goku said excitedly as he had wanted someone to train with ever since he got here, the fight he had with Yang was great but…he knew the blond brawler would not want to train with him due to her own reasons so this was perfect for him.

"So do you have any ideal place to train?" Velvet asked innocently.

Goku scratched his chin as he got deep in thought. After a few seconds, Goku had a look of realization as he proceeded to answer Velvet.

"Just go to the place where Glynda told me to go the last time you saw me."

"Is it fine, what if something gets destroyed?"

"I take care of the place now, I'm supposed to be farming but since they haven't grown yet so we can train there all we want, as long as the field isn't destroyed, Glynda really doesn't have anything to complain about...I hope," Goku gulped as he said those last words.

"Well then, I suppose I'll take my leave for now. See you later after school Goku," Velvet waved as she walked out of the cafeteria.

Goku waved back in response and walked back to team RWBY and JNPR. Once he sat down, he was greeted with faces full of surprise. Yang decided to step in first.

"Woah, not bad taking care of Cardin and his goons…Didn't expect your tail to get that strong though," Yang said as she bent her hips closer towards Goku's tail in order to observe if they were any differences than when he was a child.

"I got busy during those times, hehe," Goku chuckled lightly as he scratched his head.

"Although I feel you could have used a bit more tact, I am grateful you managed to shoo them away," Weiss said simply.

"So, are you complimenting him or telling him off?" Blade added in, she was grateful that Cardin and his gang got what came to them.

"Shut up!"

"I think you should have broken his legs Goku, well maybe not just that..." Nora mused cheerfully.

Ren decided to cut the conversation short as he thought that it was about time they got back, "I suggest we all go back to class now, break is almost over."

"Yeah, let's get back guys," Jaune said, he was thankful that the monkey faunus stepped in as he did because he was sure everyone would have ask him about his problems with Cardin lately.

Ruby stood up as she pushed the table downward, "Alright, let's go gang. Bye Goku!" With that, the young leader of team RWBY disappeared as she zipped away.

"We seriously need to keep a leash on your sister," Weiss stated as she stared at Yang. Yang simply smiled awkwardly while the sounds of Goku eating food could be heard as the monkey faunus continued his meal.

* * *

Goku was currently standing on the field, the one that he was tasked to take care of. It was a good thing the field was huge, otherwise he would have suggested both of them going to Emerald Forest to train and he didn't think Glynda would allowed it if she happened to know. He then noticed students were leaving the building left and right. The martial artist guessed that school was over and Velvet should be coming here soon. After waiting for a while, he finally saw a small silhouette going in this direction. As expected, it was Velvet, dressed in her combat uniform.

"Sorry for being a bit late, I needed to change into my combat suit." When Goku decided to take a closer look, he noticed her outfit was a long-sleeved brown jacket with a golden zipper, brown pants and black leggings with golden detail, also golden spaulders and vambraces on both her arms, as well as a belt along her waist. He was also curious to see that she didn't have any sort of weapons on her like Yang or Ruby, just a small box

Goku clapped his hands together as he grinned widely, "That's not a problem, come on, let's get started! First off, I gotta know what you're made of so give me everything you got Velvet!" Goku declared as he shifted into his standard fighting stance.

In response, Velvet also quickly got into her stance as she prepared herself. Knowing Goku, he probably wouldn't go into full power so she would probably be fine.

The two silently stared off at each other, each one awaiting for their opponent's first move. Velvet decided to destroy the silence as she leapt off into the air and led off with a jump kick with her right leg. Goku immediately dodged his head to the right, avoiding the attack. As soon as she landed back on the ground, she braced her knees and jumped again, this time straight at the monkey faunus. Opening her left hand and extending it, she let out an open palm thrust. Noticing this, Goku waited for Velvet to get closer. As soon as Velvet got within Goku's breathing space, Goku used both of his hand to press her left hand in-between both his hands, stopping her thrust as it got within an inch to Goku's face. He then lifted his entire body into the air and let out a kick from both his legs. Velvet let out an audible sound of pain as she was pushed away.

Goku immediately shifted himself back into a relaxed state as he let out a slow breath, "Whew, ok! I think I have an idea how strong you are Velvet, you were still holding back though..."

Still holding her stomach, Velvet scratched her head as she awkwardly tried to explain, "Well you see...I can't exactly use my weapons freely like that, they have a limit so to say..."

"Then what about those semblance things?" Goku never fully understood how those semblances thing work, although Qrow always just called his Ki his semblance so he just assumed that was what his was.

"I can use them, of course…but using them would defeat the purpose of training since my semblance depends on other people's abilities."

"Ohhhhh! So that's why you wanted to train with me."

"Yes, that's part of the reason," She probably shouldn't have said that, the real reason she was doing this was something she wouldn't want anyone to know, not even her teammates.

Goku was a bit confused at her words, but his confusion soon disappeared as both of them heard someone dashing through the premise of the academy. They noticed the mysterious figure was going straight for them. Once it got closer, the figure kicked up dust, obscuring both their vision.

"My, what on Remnant are you two doing here?" The figure asked with a curious tone in his voice. Once the dust settled and they had a better view, they saw it was Oobleck, standing tall and still holding his trademark coffee mug.

"Nothing much, just training with Velvet," Goku answered truthfully.

Oobleck bent his body, getting nearer to the both of them, as if inspecting them. He then took a sip of his coffee.

"I see…I suppose I can't ask too many questions. In fact, I say this is a great opportunity, Miss Scarlatina is an excellent student during my classes, I hope her love of history could rub off on you, young Goku," Oobleck was still trying to get the young faunus to appreciate the rich history Remnant beholds, although it was a futile effort. Nonetheless, if he couldn't do it, then maybe his best student could.

"I don't know, it's still all boring to me..." Goku simply stated.

"Hmmm, yes…I'll be counting on you, miss Scarlatina," Oobleck said as he ignored Goku's words.

"Ah yes!" Velvet's ears twitched up as she replied. Having said his piece, Oobleck left as he zipped away, leaving the two alone.

"You're not really going to teach me right?" Goku nervously asked as he really didn't want anything to do with history.

"You're not a student here so I don't think it's necessary, you're fine the way you are Goku," She honestly couldn't ever think of teaching Goku unless he wanted it, but she had a very strong feeling that he'll never ever request that.

"Whew, that's good. Anyway, it's time we start training seriously," Goku said as he adopted a serious look on his face. Just as the two were about to get into it, they were interrupted by voices a bit further away from them. Interested, Goku signaled Velvet to hide together in a small bush. Reluctantly, she followed him and the two waited to see what was going on.

Seconds later, the two saw Jaune and Pyrrha standing under a tree, with what seemed to be Jaune observing if anyone was around. Of course, he was wrong as they were two people listening already. Nonetheless, Jaune Arc told his partner something he had wanted to tell someone ever since he got into Beacon Academy.

"Jaune, why did you bring me here again, exactly? I thought we were going to the roof to start your training starting today?" Pyrrha asked with concern in her voice as her partner was acting strangely, even more so than usual.

Jaune gulped his saliva before he answered her, "You see…I just can't take this anymore," Jaune said as he drooped both his arms.

"Whatever do you mean?" the red head asked in puzzlement.

"Look, anything I say here needs to be kept in secret, tell no one, not even Ren or Nora," Jaune warned her.

Pyrrha merely nodded her head slowly. On the other hand, Velvet was feeling even more guilty as the conversation between Jaune and Pyrrha led on. She felt that she clearly shouldn't be listening in to this, she tugged at her friend's clothes lightly.

Goku immediately put a finger over his mouth, giving the indication to Velvet that she should stay quiet. She let out a sigh as she continue listening in to their conversation, with her conscience telling her this was wrong and she should turn back but the fact that she had no idea where else to hide was stopping her from doing so. That and she also wanted to know what Goku was thinking right now...that was before she heard a small rustling noise from another bush across of them. Noticing this, she finally understood what Goku was doing, thus she silent herself as the two continue hiding.

"I got a confession to make…I'm not supposed to be at Beacon," Jaune said, with a hint of guilt in his tone.

"Of course not Jaune, you do belong here."

"No, what I really mean is…I faked the transcripts to even be here in the first place," Jaune turned his head to Pyrrha as he was ashamed to even meet her in the eyes.

It was silent for a moment, for both Pyrrha and the people hiding near them. Pyrrha extended both her arms and gently pulled Jaune's shoulder back to meet with her gaze. Once their eyes met, Jaune didn't know what to do as he tried to avoid contact with his partner.

Pyrrha then gently put both her hands on the Arc's cheeks, causing the young Arc to finally look at her. What he saw wasn't pity, anger for lying to her, not even sadness in her eyes. It was confidence, pure confidence that Jaune couldn't help but admire.

"Jaune, it doesn't matter to me even if you're not even supposed to be at Beacon, what matters is that you're here… and I'm glad you are," As she finished the sentence with a smile, she noticed she was holding his cheeks and immediately let go in embarassment. She hoped Jaune didn't see that.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for the red head, Jaune didn't notice and was focusing solely on her words. She was right, why does it matter on how he came here? Okay it matters a lot but still...he was here now and he'll just have to prove himself worthy himself of being at Beacon.

"Yeah, you're right Pyrrha, I'll just work myself to the bone, let's get to training me right now!" With renewed determination in his mind, Jaune felt that it was not the end of the world…that was until both of them heard something rustling in one of the nearby bushes.

It was Cardin Winchester, the one that was the main source of Jaune's problems lately. Jaune was frightened, no… scared of the bully. Cardin now knew about Jaune's circumstances, there was no way the bully wouldn't take advantage of that. His partner, in response tensed up as she was preparing for any sort of conflict that might occur.

Goku and Velvet, however was still observing the situation as they continued to silently hide inside the bush since they knew of Cardin's presence since some time ago.

"Hey Jauney boy and know-it-all, how's it been?" Cardin gave a toothy grin, enjoying the nervousness that was coming out of them.

"You're probably wondering...when was I here. Pfttt, let me tell ya, since the time Jauney boy there was telling you to keep something a secret miss know-it-all. The instant I heard, there was just no way I could be missing out so you know..."

"And what exactly are you going to do now that you heard?" Depending on the bully's answer, Pyrrha Nikos was thinking of doing something drastic if needed.

"What do you think, make Jauney boy here do everything I say, from homework to the laundry, he's going to do it because he. has. no. choice."

With that, the red head was about to charge at the bully, that was, before an arm was blocking her way. She turned her head, noticing Jaune was having a determined expression on his face. Jaune was frightened, sure…but he also didn't want to trouble Pyrrha any further.

"Look Cardin, just leave me and my team alone, got it?" Jaune said bravely as his entire body was shaking as he said that.

"Oh, brave words there...so you wouldn't mind if I expose your little secret to the headmaster, am I right?" The Jaune from a few minutes ago would have been afraid, no absolutely terrified if Cardin did just that, and he would follow the bully's instructions to the letter, that was until Pyrrha gave him the confidence and the determination needed that he doesn't even care anymore, even if he was still a bit scared.

"I don't care. Go ahead, tell them, if it means not disappointing my friends, then I won't do it," Jaune said as he stood firmed in place. Pyrrha was entirely surprised and impressed by Jaune's bravery.

"Oh yeah? Well let me change your mind," Cardin warned as he slowly walked closer to the two.

Jaune was trying to face Cardin bravely but he was sadly failing as his body was still shaking. It was a good thing Pyrrha was there because she stepped in front of Jaune in a protective stance.

Seeing this, Cardin clicked his tongue in frustration as he backed up. The bully wasn't stupid, that damn Nikos would wipe the floor with him if he tried. However, he would have the pleasure of seeing Jaune getting kicked out, that was a consolation at least in his eyes.

"You brought this to yourself Jauney boy… I can't wait to see your reaction when you're shipped back home, crying to mommy," With that, Cardin Winchester left the two alone.

The two only stood in silence as they watched the sunset together. Jaune then turned his head to face his partner, the bright light illuminating him, "Come on Pyrrha, let's get to training, I gotta start now right?" Jaune asked with a small smile.

It took Pyrrha a moment before she could reply to her leader, "Of course, that would be nice," the two then left, with Jaune scared but determined and Pyrrha glad that Jaune stood up for himself like that.

Once the coast was clear, Goku and Velvet came out of the bush. As the two dusted off the leaves stuck on their body, Velvet finally decided to voice out her concerns.

"Goku, don't you think it would be a good idea if you tell Headmaster Ozpin of this before Cardin could tell him."

"Nah, it's fine. Ozpin's too smart to not know about that whatyamacallit thing being fake," Goku said as he put both his arms around his head.

"Transcripts Goku...you have a lot of fate in the headmaster don't you?"

"Yeah! Ozpin was the one who taught me the right way to train after all," The monkey faunus highly respected Ozpin, even if most of the time he still couldn't understand what the man was talking about most of the time.

"I do wonder how is it going right now at the headmaster's office?"

* * *

"What do you mean I'm wrong?" Cardin Winchester said as he slammed the desk hard. He was currently in the principal's office, conversing with both Glynda and Ozpin.

"It is what I said, Mr. Winchester. I have checked every student's profile several times before any of you even came for the evaluation, there is nothing wrong with Jaune Arc's transcripts."

"You gotta be shitting me!" Cardin couldn't believe it, there was no way that scaredy-cat was lying and was just trying to get sympathy points from the red head, there was just no way.

"Mr. Winchester, I would advise against using such crude language," Glynda said as she pushed her glasses upward.

"Now, if there's nothing else Mr. Winchester, I suggest you leave seeing as I still have many things to do," Cardin merely nodded as he slowly walked out of the room, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Are you sure this is fine, Ozpin?" Glynda asked her superior as she only allowed this because Ozpin was the one told her to do so.

"It's fine, I had already predicted this would happen beforehand," Ozpin stated calmly as he sipped his coffee.

"I see..." With that, the two went into silent as they continued their work.

* * *

"Come on Velvet, let's get back to training!" Goku said as he pumped up his right arm.

"Right…before that, let's keep whatever just happened a secret, ok Goku?"

"Umm sure, but why?" Goku answered, with confusion clearly plastered on his face as the two walked back to train.


	13. Arguing

It was a sunny day in the city of Vale as team RWBY were currently strolling in the streets, led by an uncharacteristically cheerful Weiss, who was humming a song while skipping around, appearing to be light on her feet.

The rest of team RWBY however, were understandably a bit weirded out by their teammate's behavior as they have never seen her like this. Even Blake couldn't help but stare blankly at the heiress's cheerfulness, not knowing what to say.

"Weiss, what's with you today? You seem a little bit too..." Yang asked slowly.

"Joyful, it honestly scares me and I can safely say that for all three of us," Blake added as she stared at the siblings who were both nodding their heads in agreement.

Weiss immediately stopped on her tracks as she faced the three, a smile plastered on her face.

"Oh, how could I not? It's the Vytal Festival! The real question is how come you three aren't having as much as fun as I am?"

Ruby immediately dashed toward Weiss and shook both her shoulders, "Who are you and what have you done with Weiss? No way the cranky Weiss I know is capable of having such joyful thoughts!"

Unexpectedly, this action didn't bother the heiress in the least as she simply laughed it off.

"Oh Ruby, nothing is wrong with me. Now, how about we continue walking to the docks," After that was said, Weiss got back into humming as she continue skipping to the docks.

Ruby could only keep a blank stare for a moment before snapping out of it and turning to the other two, "Yup, definitely weirding me out...she has a nice singing voice though…"

"Well, Rubs. You know what they say, when Boarbatusks fly," Yang said jokingly.

Ruby whispered to the raven-haired member of her team, "Does anyone actually say that?"

Blank merely gave a short reply, "No," before raising her voice a bit to talk to both of them.

"I give it one minute at most before she explodes," Blake stated simply.

"What gives you that idea?" Ruby asked, wanting to know why Blake thought as such.

"Just a hunch."

Before anymore could be said, a loud yell was heard from their current spot and it was a very familiar voice indeed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU DOLT!"

The three stared at each other, Blake letting out a smirk as she was correct in her guess. Knowing what they had to do, they ran to the docks to see what was going on.

Once they got there, they saw Weiss and surprisingly Goku, who also happened to be there, seemingly trying to take his pants off and besides him, were two men trying to prevent him from doing said action.

With Weiss steaming with frustration and Blake still letting out a small smirk, Yang decided to ask her best friend what exactly he was doing as she walked up to the guy.

"Goku, what are you doing?"

Goku finally took notice of them, ignoring the men around him as he replied back to Yang, "Well, I was trying to catch some fish and since I didn't wanna let my clothes wet..."

"That's exactly the problem, who would do something so unethical in broad daylight, and on such an exciting day as well!" Weiss yelled loudly again, so loud that the others tried to close their ears as they didn't want their eardrums being torn off.

"Umm, sirs, do you mind leaving this to us, we promise he won't doing anything crazy," Ruby said as she tried to relieve the two men.

"Well, if you say so, as long as he doesn't strip in public, we'll be going then," With that, the two workers went on their way while Ruby bowed apologetically.

Weiss was about to give Goku another talking to but luckily, Ruby held her back as she covered Weiss' mouth, causing incoherent noise to be heard from the heiress's mouth. Noticing this, Yang gave her little sister a thumbs-up as she decided to keep talking to Goku.

"I thought you were supposed to be...you know, training?" Yang continued.

"Oh! I was training with Velvet earlier, but she said she couldn't do it any more for today. Something about things to do, so I got hungry and—"

"I think I know where you're going with this, you know what? I'll cook you up something once we get back to Beacon, deal? So try not to you know..." Yang said as she pointed towards the monkey faunus's pants.

Goku nodded his head hard repeatedly the instant he heard Yang's words, he got excited at the prospect of eating Yang's food as he could still remember the tastiness of it all and it had been years since he last tasted her cooking so he was definitely looking forward to it.

"You know how to cook?" Blake asked as she raised her left eyebrow.

"Yeah well, when you're living with this guy over here," Yang said as she pointed her thumb towards Goku, "You'll learn to do it out of necessity, dad couldn't do it all on his own after all."

She could still remember the time Taiyang bending over backwards to cook something for the guy, since buying take-out would cost a lot more and considering Goku's appetite, he thought it was a great idea at the time. Suffice to say, he couldn't even handle the first few days so Yang had to step up and help. It was tough at first, especially with Goku's voracious appetite but it all worked out in the end at least.

"So…you wanna hang out with us in the meantime Goku?" Ruby asked, releasing her hold on Weiss, with the heiress mad at her leader for doing that just now.

"Sure! I got nothing better to do and I can eat something once we get back, hehe," Goku said excitedly.

"Onward!" Ruby declared as she pointed in a random direction.

"You still sulking?" Blake asked the heiress, noticing Weiss was folding both her arms across her chest in frustration.

"Who's sulking? You know what, it's fine. There's no way I'll let something like this ruin my good mood for today, let's just continue on and—"

"Hey! Stop that no-good stowaway!" A sailor yelled, catching everyone's attention.

They saw a young man, he had short spiky blond hair, wearing a loosed collar white shirts with red bracers on both his arms and blue cargo pants. Said stowaway was also a faunus as he was at the moment, hanging on a lamppost with his tail while peeling a banana.

"Hey! there's a difference between a no-good stowaway and a great stowaway. I can bet you can guess which one I am?" the young faunus said as he ate the banana.

One of the detectives started throwing rocks at him. Luckily, the faunus was able to dodge them as he dropped the banana peel on one of the detectives. As the men got distracted, the monkey faunus took this chance, jumping off the streetlight and started running away from them. As he kept running, he crossed path with Goku and the others. What caught the faunus's eyes was Blake as he showed said interest by winking at her, surprising Blake. The faunus then sped up as the detectives started chasing after him.

"Wonder what was all that about?" Yang asked curiously.

"I can't allow this. As a huntress in training, it is one of my solemn duties to ensure that a deviant like that would be served justice." With that, Weiss ran off to the stairs in an attempt to catch up with the young man.

The other four merely looked at each other to know what they were supposed to do right now. Their confusion disappeared as Weiss called them from above the docks, bending over the fence so that they could hear her.

"Well, what do you want, an invitation? When I mean me, of course I mean all of us!"

All of them sighed as they got up the stairs to catch up with Weiss. Once they got there, they saw Weiss looking left and right, probably searching for the stowaway.

"It seems that rapscallion has gotten away..."

"Why do you keep calling him names like that?" Blake asked with a hint of anger in her voice.

"What do you want me to call him? I am only saying what is factually correct."

"I—" Blake was interrupted as Ruby decided to relieve the tension, pointing out to a shop that was in tatters to distract them.

"H-Hey guys, what do guys think happen there?"

"Weird, didn't see that earlier... probably because we were running earlier," Yang said as she placed both her arms on her hip.

"Oh, I know about that!" Goku noted. They waited for the martial artist to tell them but there were only several moments of silence before Yang decided to ask the martial artist.

"You mind telling us what it is?" She considered Goku as one of her family members but she also knows he can be a complete idiot sometimes.

"Right. I remember hearing one of them detectives talking about the White Fang," Goku explained as he adopted a serious look on his face.

"You make it sound like you met them before Goku," Ruby asked in curiosity.

"Some of them, yeah..."

Before Goku could say anymore, Weiss decided to put her opinion in all of this.

"Ah yes, the White Fang. A bunch of degenerates, it would make sense someone like them would rob a dust shop."

"Why do you think so?" Blake asked as she clenched her teeth, trying to reel in her anger, she didn't want to make a big deal out of this, although that could change depending on the heiress's words.

"If it isn't obvious-"

Yang instantly cut their conversation short as she put herself between the two.

"Weren't we supposed to go find the guy with a monkey tail?"

Weiss simply let out a 'hmph' as she turned away to talk with their leader.

"Thanks." Blake said quietly.

"No prob Blakey. Don't know why you're like that but I got your back. You're my partner after all," Yang then gave a reassuring smile to her partner.

Blake let out a small smile, she was glad that her partner was someone like Yang. Yang turned her head around, noticing Goku pointing his right index finger at himself, confusion clearly shown on his face, she guessed it was probably because of what she said just now.

"No, I don't mean you," Yang said with a deadpanned look on her face.

Goku let out a sigh of relief. He was seriously worried as he thought they might be searching for a double of him or something.

"Alright gang, let's split up and search. We'll group up again later in ten minutes at that spot," Ruby said, pointing to a shop around the corner.

All of them simply nodded their head as they started searching, heeding Ruby's order.

"All right, after searching everywhere in this place, we... didn't find him...nice teamwork though," Ruby said as her voice got quieter and quieter.

"You know Ruby, I was kinda wondering why didn't you just use Nimbus?" Goku asked in curiosity.

The other three members of team RWBY all slapped their faces at the same time, making Goku confused to why they were doing that as he scratched his head.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Ruby hit her head lightly as she felt stupid for not calling the one thing that could let her get above ground and easily find the person they were looking for.

Without much thinking, Ruby started running away from them, confusing Goku and the others, "Wait, maybe we can still find him if I just-"

Crashing into something, Ruby fell down, rubbing her head in pain and lifted her head to see what she crashed into. In hindsight, she really should had been more careful. What or in this case who she saw in front of her was a young girl that seemed to be about her age and height, had curly orange hair and was wearing an old fashioned blouse.

As the young leader of team RWBY got up, she noticed the person she just literally bumped into still hasn't gotten up yet and the others were running towards them.

"Salutations!" The girl in front of Ruby said in a cheerful voice, startling Ruby as she returned her focus towards the girl.

"Yeah, hi...umm, sorry about bumping into you earlier. Are you okay?"

"Oh, it's fine, I did not feel that."

Once the others finally got there, they noticed the person that Ruby ran into. They were still puzzled why the girl wasn't getting up yet, Yang decided that it would be better to talk to her about than awkwardly lying on the ground like that while they talk.

"Do you want to stand up so...you know, we can have a conversation?"

The girl put on a thoughtful expression but turned back to normal after a while, "Yes!"

The instant she leapt on her back, everyone but Goku took a step back, a bit weirded out.

"Hello! My name is Penny. It is a pleasure to meet you all. If you would not mind, I would also like to know your names," Penny exclaimed in excitement as she saluted them, which only serve to weird them out even further.

"Hi! I'm Goku," Goku said as he saluted back to the girl they just met. Naturally, the others followed suit.

"Call me Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"You sure you didn't hit your head when you fell just now?" Yang asked as she never met someone as weird as the person before her, maybe aside from Goku. Blake then quickly elbowed her in the gut, causing Yang to amend her sentence.

"Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You already said that," Weiss stated as if a matter of fact.

Penny squinted her eyes a bit before responding, "So I did!"

Wanting to leave as quick as possible, Yang decided to end their little conversation with the strange girl.

"Welp, it was nice seeing you but we…gotta go."

"But why? It's not like we're gonna find the other guy anyway..." Goku complained, not taking the hint.

Annoyingly, Yang grabbed Goku by the shoulder and dragged him away as all of them started to leave, leaving Goku confused on what was going on.

"Goodbye friend," Ruby said sincerely.

"Yeah, hope we get to meet you again and know you better next time!" Goku said excitedly, proven by his hands waving at Penny.

"Well, she was…weird," Yang said as they kept walking.

"Now, about finding that riffraff. Ruby, if you would—"

Weiss's sentence was interrupted once again as Penny suddenly appeared before them.

"What did you say just now?" The orange haired girl asked as she craned her neck.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you heard that," Yang explained her reason as Weiss continually turn her head back and forth in confusion on how the person they met just now could get here so fast.

"No, not you. You two," Penny said as she pointed both her index finger at Ruby and Goku.

"Me?" Ruby responded in surprise. Goku, on the hand, merely blinked in confusion.

Closing in on the two, she put both her arms on each side of their shoulders, tightly gripping them.

"You called me a friend...and you, you wanted to get to know me better, is that true?"

The two blinked in confusion, seeing as they didn't expect that kind of question to come out of her. At that moment, they also noticed that Weiss, Blake and Yang were all nervously shaking their heads, indicating that they didn't want the two to agree with the strange girl.

Ruby and Goku both turned to each other before simultaneously giving the same answer.

"Yeah!" Ruby answered sincerely while Goku gave an innocent smile.

The other three merely sighed in resignation as they really should have expected them to answer like that, they really shouldn't have bothered in the first place considering the twos' personality.

"Sensational!" The freckled girl exclaimed in excitement. She had always wanted to do activities with friends, now that it was possible the girl couldn't wait to do said activities.

"Perhaps we can paint our nails, talk about boys. Oh! Maybe even about shoes..." Penny continued on as she spun around in place, serving only to weird them out even further.

"Was I like this the second time we met?" whispered Ruby to Weiss, since the two also had a somewhat similar event happen to them.

Weiss simply responded curtly, "No, she is far more coordinated."

"Aww, but that's boring. Can't we do something more fun, like going to a restaurant for food, or even better, fighting!" Goku said as he emphasized the last part.

Weiss felt the need to correct the faunus of their group, "What you said just now was nonsense. There's just simply no way a pale, bony, frail, and weak-looking girl like her could possibly be interested in fighting, let alone be capable of combat."

"Are you sure you're not talking about yourself there?" Blake said sarcastically.

The heiress decided she was above that and didn't give her teammate the dignity of a response.

"Of course. If you want to, I am always combat ready!" answered Penny to the faunus's question.

Weiss could only stare blankly, not believing a girl like her could possibly fight.

"You...fight? Excuse me if I come off as rude but I don't find that believable at all."

Blake gave a small smirk as she gave a snide remark to the heiress's words, "Pot, meet kettle."

"Hey!" Weiss yelled out in annoyance as she couldn't possibly understand what was wrong in her statement just now.

"So, if you're not from here...and you can fight, that means you're here for the Vytal Festival."

Penny gave the heiress a nod, signaling that the heiress was correct in her assumption.

Weiss had another question in mind, "Then do you know anything about that faunus degenerate?" Weiss asked as she grabbed Penny's shoulders.

Penny could only let out a confused expression on her face while unnoticeably to everyone else, Blake was once again clenching her teeth, trying to reel in her anger.

"Let me clarify a bit more, he is a monkey faunus."

"Goku here is a monkey faunus..." Penny stated simply.

"Yes, but the ruffian we're looking for has the looks of a future would-be criminal. Anyone can see that with one look at that riffraff," Weiss said as she puffed out her chest.

Deciding she had enough, Blake decided to do something she hadn't done ever since she first got here to Beacon, she yelled.

"Why do you call him a degenerate, or all those disgusting names. He's a person, not just some thing you can label all you want."

Not understanding Blake's anger but also not wanting to lose, Weiss only countered back with the same intensity.

"Oh? Then do you want me to stop calling this trash can a trash can, or a criminal a criminal. Instead, should I replaced it with better sounding names? Would that make it better? No, it won't, because that is what accurately describes them."

"What do you have against him? Just because he's a faunus or is it because of the White Fang?" The now angered Blake questioned as she didn't want to let this matter slide.

The other four could only observe at their argument, not wanting to enrage any of the two.

"Why yes! He's a faunus, and all of the members of the White Fang are comprised of faunus. Put the two and two together, and you can see why I don't trust them in general."

"Then what about Goku here, he's a faunus too!"

Weiss took a glance at the spiky-haired individual and returned her attention back the Blake.

"He might just be a simpleton, but every person has a darker side, even that musclehead over there. If anyone simply gives him the wrong instructions that will lead to criminal activities, I'm sure he'll just follow it without much thought and end up like the rest of them."

"Weiss, be careful with what you say. The guy you just insulted is my best friend. Ruby's partner or not, I don't take it too kindly to people who treat my family like dirt," Yang butted in, anger radiating from her eyes.

"Oh, you're taking her side now!"

"I'm not taking anyone's side, I—"

While the three continue to argue, Penny felt curious why friends would fight like that. She had always thought friends would be people who would get along with each other no matter what.

"Why do they fight? Aren't they friends?"

"I...don't know Penny," Ruby answered truthfully.

"Then why aren't you angry Ruby? Like Yang. According to my observations, you two are sisters, am I correct in my assumption?"

"Woah, so you can tell huh...Yeah, I am mad that Weiss just talk badly about Goku over here just now but I don't think I'll be a good leader if I just barge in like that, you know?"

Penny had on an understanding look hearing the young leader of team RWBY explaining her reasoning while Goku put his hand on the young leader's head, ruffling her hair wildly, flustering Ruby.

"That's great! Man, you really grown up huh... Last time I remembered, you were still drinking milk," Goku said as he grinned.

"Hey! I still drink milk, that's why I'm all grown up after all," Ruby proclaimed as she puffed out her chest and lifted her heads upward.

"Still, I can't believe Weiss would think of you like that..." Ruby complained, pouting.

"Maybe because I said I met some of them?" Goku said as he put on a thoughtful look.

"I believe that she would think that regardless," Penny added.

"Yeah...I think it's about time we get back, sorry about all this Penny. You make new friends and then your friend's friends and sister started arguing with each other..."

"It is fine. I only hope that they will stay as friends in the end. I hope we shall meet again friends."

With that, Penny bid the two goodbye as Ruby and Goku sighed, knowing how hard it would be to get them back to Beacon.

* * *

"Can't you three just make up already? Since Goku's not here, it's so awkward with just me talking while all three of you just shrug and don't even look at each other..." Ruby complained as she repeatedly waved both her arms up.

What Ruby said was true. Goku had left after eating the meal Yang promised, he was currently elsewhere around in the campus.

"It's not like I'm not talking to Blake or anything, it's just that a certain someone here still hasn't actually reflected on what they said," Her sister answered to Ruby.

Having an idea, Ruby decided it would be better if she asked talk with them one by one, since she was out of this whole feud and all.

"Umm, then what about you Blake?"

Giving a quick glance to her leader, Blake changed her gaze towards the heiress.

"Like your sister said, I have nothing against her. But I have a lot of problems with someone else in this room."

Immediately after hearing that, Weiss turned around to face the usually silent member of their team.

"What exactly is your problem here? I don't see anything that's worth arguing for so long, especially something like a terrorist organization."

"My problem? It's because you think like that. Don't you think there are reasons why the White Fang is like that? Not everything is so black and white, it's because of people like you that the White Fang would do such extreme measures in the first place!"

"People like me?"

"You're discriminatory!"

"I'm a victim!"

Weiss held up her left arm across her chest as she leered at not just Blake, but Ruby and Yang as well as she stared towards the floor.

"You want to know why...why I despise the White Fang and have no trust in faunus?" Weiss then leaned towards the window, staring at the night sky.

"It's because my family has been at war with them for years now. War, as in actual blood being spilled. My grandfather's company has had a target painted on its back for as long as I had remembered and most of them are from faunus. So imagine me, nothing but a small child still ignorant of the world, forced to witness the disappearance of family members, either it be directly or from hearsay, board members being executed and the news of Dust being stolen from an entire train. Adding on top of all that, my father would come home every day, furious. That only made it a certainty that my childhood would be difficult."

The room went silent, the three not knowing what to say after hearing what was said just now. Ruby, feeling sympathetic, reached out her hand in an effort to comfort her partner.

"Weiss, I—"

Weiss suddenly turned around, ignoring Ruby's outstretched hand as she quickly walked towards Blake.

"No! Do you want to know why I despise the White Fang? Because all they have done are nothing but loathsome. Lying, stealing, murdering, the list goes on. I have no sympathy for people like them."

Blake had heard enough of this as she yelled back.

"Maybe it's because we were done being pushed around!"

Silence dropped again as the other three in the room widened their eyes in shock. Blake, noticed her slip-up as she looked around at her teammates. Not giving them a chance to respond, Blake quickly dashed out of the room, leaving them stunned.

"Blake! Wait, come back!"

Ruby immediately ran over to the door. By the time she got there, there was not a trace of her teammate.

"I'm gonna go see if I can catch up to her," With that, Ruby left the room, leaving Yang and Weiss together.

"You're not going to say anything?" Weiss asked sharply.

"No, don't think I do. Not right now anyway..." With that, the room only continued in silence as the two did not speak a single word after that.

* * *

Blake was currently standing on the main avenue, contemplating on what to do next. She definitely didn't want to go back, she didn't want to know what their reactions would be.

As she stared at the statue, the echoing sounds of Ruby's voice could be heard, alerting her.

"Blake! Blake! Where are you?"

Instinctively, Blake quickly pulled out Gambol Shroud and switched it to its gun-blade form, throwing it to one of the roof of the buildings. Using it as an anchor, she climbed up the building as she held on the ribbon that was on Gambol Shroud.

Once she got up the roof, she looked down and saw Ruby running around looking for her as evident by Ruby constantly calling her name out.

Deciding this place was as good as any, she untied her bow on top of her head, revealing a set of ears, cat ears to be exact.

"Knew you looked better without the bow."

Blake slowly turned around and saw that it was the faunus they met this morning.

"..."

"What? Are you going mute on me, that's just great," The blond faunus whined as he turned around, drooping both his arms down.

"You know, you guys should really stay quiet...people are sleeping after all."

"Woah! Alright, where did you come from and who are you?" The faunus question, pointing his finger at the new individual with them as he was sure nobody was around the rooftop before he talked with Blake.

"Hi! I'm Goku. I'm a security guard here. I kinda saw you a while ago when I was running around so I've been following you for a while now."

"Seriously...the cops couldn't catch me but a security guard can... must be losing my touch. Anyway, name's Sun Wukong."

As Sun and Goku introduced themselves, Blake merely stayed quiet as Sun suddenly the two continued to talk.

"So, judging by your tail, you're a monkey faunus like me huh?" Sun was genuinely surprised he would meet someone that was the same as him.

"Maybe we're so alike that we can share the same name...Quick, what's your full name?" He was of course, playing around but since he hadn't heard the guy's full name yet, he thought it would be as good as time as any

"Oh! It's Son Goku!" The spiky-haired young man answered with a grin, the name surprising the blond faunus.

"Oh man...Maybe we're cousins or something? What's next, your hair suddenly turns blond like mine and your clothes get ripped every time you fight, showing your abs?" The young man joked as he lightly tapped Goku's left shoulder.

"Ahem..." Blake coughed, her face reddened in embarrassment. She really didn't want to think about their naked...bodies and decided to interrupt their little chat.

"Goku, if you can. Please don't tell anyone of them where I'm going."

"Why are you going anyway, shouldn't you tell Ruby and the others first?" Goku asked, confused, not knowing what was going on.

Blake simply pointed toward the place where her bow used to be. Noticing, Goku quickly freaked out, confused on why there was another set of ears on Blake.

"Blake! What happened to your bow? Did someone changed it to fluffy cat ears? Who would do such a thing?"

Sun put on a blank stare, not believing that Goku hadn't figure out yet, he was quickly dismissing the possibility that they were related judging by his current reaction.

If Blake hadn't spend some time with the martial artist, she would have felt insulted if it were anyone else, "No, I'm a faunus Goku..."

"You are? Man, who would have thought..." Goku said, deep in thought.

"So, do you think you can keep a secret? I don't want to meet the others, not yet anyway..." Blake really hoped the martial artist could keep this a secret, she really wasn't prepared to face her team members, not just yet at least.

"Probably not...but I can just go right now so I won't have anything to tell, think that would be good?" Goku answered truthfully, scratching his head.

"That would be more than enough. Thank you Goku."

He then waved them goodbye as he disappearing into the dark night.

"He's a really nice guy huh?" Sun thought he really was, or at least a guy pure of heart seeing how the guy let him go like that. Blake simply smiled at that remark.

"So…where do you wanna go now?" Blake could only lift her eyebrows in confusion.


	14. Uninvited

"Alright team, Operation: Find Blake is a go!" The young leader of team RWBY declared loudly to her two members.

It was currently early in the morning, a night has passed since Blake was last seen. At the moment, Ruby and the others were still within Beacon Academy. Ruby decided that it would be best to search for her as soon as they could because she had a feeling that Blake wouldn't come back to them unless they took the initiative, so they started their search in the morning since it would be easier to find her in broad daylight.

"Are you sure we can't just let the authorities handle this?" Weiss complained.

Ruby and Yang promptly ignored the heiress, leaving her aspirated. They knew the heiress would help them in their search, albeit reluctantly. Weiss did indeed want to search for their missing teammate, faunus or not. However, she still needed more time to reflect on what happened yesterday.

"Before we go, think ya might want to take Goku along as well?" Yang asked her little sister, she had thought that Ruby would have asked him by now.

"Nah. As much as I want to, this is a team thing...and plus, I don't want to disturb him, he is a security guard here after all," Ruby reasoned, she also didn't want Goku to be worried about Blake's disappearance.

"It's not like we ever see him do actual work but...you're right," Yang said, agreeing with her younger sister.

"Alright then. Once we get to town, you and Weiss will be on one team while I search alone," this was for the best in Ruby's mind, the two still needed to work out their issues with each other.

"What! Did you not see what was going on yesterday?" Weiss complained, it's not like she didn't want to work with the brawler but they're not exactly at speaking terms right now.

"Cool it for a bit, ice queen. Rubs is our leader after all so we gotta do what she says," Yang understood clearly that her little sister was trying to help the two of them make up, even if she didn't like the idea.

Weiss relented, she did promise after all that she'll be the best teammate for their leader. How she acted just now was anything but, the heiress supposed that she should act more professional at this point instead of complaining. Truthfully, it was getting a bit repetitive.

"No more complaints? Good, let's go then."

Thus, the three began walking towards the streets, in hopes of finding their missing teammate.

* * *

Speaking of their missing member, she was currently sitting outside a café, drinking tea with a certain blond faunus.

Sun was not having much progress with the cat faunus sitting across him. Ever since Goku left, they had not spoken a single word, which annoyed him quite a bit. They spent an entire night wandering around town. When he meant 'they', he meant it was only him just following the cat faunus around.

"Seriously? How long are you going to play hard to get here?" Sun asked while he was drinking his tea by using his tail.

"..."

"Oh man. If I knew this was gonna happen, then I should have convinced my kinda maybe lost cousin to come with us or something. At least he'll be someone I can talk to," Sun said as he emphasized the last part, wanting Blake to take the hint.

"So, you wanna know more about me?"

Sun was surprised that the cat faunus finally decided to talk to him, "At last she speaks! Ever since last night, all you've been giving me were nothing but weird looks and stares."

Blake gave a firm stare towards the blond faunus at that particular remark.

"Yeah, like that."

"Sun, do you know about the White Fang?"

"Sure I do! I'm pretty sure every single faunus on the planet know about them, their stupid holier-than-thou attitude really rubs me the wrong way," Sun responded, drinking his tea.

Blake was silent for a moment then continued speaking, "Well...I used to be one of its members."

The instant he heard the reveal, he choked on his drink. He quickly pounded his chest and spit out a bit of the tea on the table as a result, disgusting Blake. Noticing the cat faunus's displeasure, he quickly wiped off the drink he spilled on his mouth and acted as if nothing happened, gesturing Blake to continue.

"Right... As I was saying, I was a member the most of my life. You could even say my life before then only revolved around the White Fang."

"Then why quit in the first place? Not that I'm don't like that you're not a member anymore," Sun quickly amended, putting both his arms up.

"I'm sure you also know…that the White Fang wasn't always like this," Blake said, gazing at the sky, remembering the past.

"Yeah...it was like how many years ago?" Sun scratched his head, trying to dig it out from his memory but couldn't, he never paid much attention to history of Remnant after all.

"Around five years, five years ago was when the White Fang started to change," Blake stopped, staring Sun in the eyes, which he stared back in return. Blake broke eye contact as she continued.

"Let's return back to the ashen days of war, when the White Fang was the symbol of peace and equality between the humans and the faunus. Despite being promised equality, it was clear as day that we faunus didn't get what we wanted. In fact, nothing change. Striving, struggling…it was only the White Fang that acted as the voice of us faunus...and I was there, all of it, even during its change."

Sun didn't say a word, he could only listen attentively to her story.

"When I was still a child, I was always at the front of every rally, partaking in every boycott, putting everything I had into it...I was just too optimistic for my own good."

She drank the tea again, to prepare what she was about to say.

"And then our leader changed..." Blake said, sadness and regret in her tone.

"Then you-know-what happened?" Sun was trying his best to thread carefully when talking with the young woman before him, he didn't want to make it worse for her after all.

Blake couldn't disagree with the monkey faunus, he was correct after all.

"Yes, that's when everything changed. Peaceful protests turned into organized attacks, we countered the people who refused us with force and violence and the worst part of it all, it worked. It worked so well that we were finally treated as equals…but not out of respect or anything… but fear, fear that frightens people only by the mere mention of the name."

"So I guess you couldn't take it anymore?"

"You're right, I left...but not without getting my hands dirty. That's why I came to Beacon in the first place, to dedicate my life to being a huntress. So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain sight, all because of a little black bow," Blake said, demonstrating the last part as she wiggled her cat ears.

After hearing her story, Sun understood and decided that he'll help her out in any way he could, even if the cat faunus didn't want to. He was wondering however, why none of her teammates were here, supporting her.

"So do any of your teammates know about this?"

Blake's shameful expression was all the information that Sun needed to know so he said nothing as they continued sitting outside the café.

* * *

"Blaaake! Blaaake!" Yang yelled loudly, walking down the streets of Vale as she tried to search for her partner.

"I can't believe that Ruby! The instant we came here, she ran away as fast as she could," Weiss complained to nobody in particular, annoyed by their leader's action.

Yang sighed, she knew it was going to be rough working with the ice princess but her sister was right, she would have to resolve this little fight of them sooner than later if they wanted to find Blake.

"We were gonna split up in the first place anyway. Plus, Rubs is the fastest among us here," Well, at least she's trying to speak to the heiress now instead of ignoring her up until this point.

Surprised by Yang's reply, she quickly took this chance to talk with the bruiser of their team, seeing as this might be the only chance they would have to make up.

"Even so, she didn't have to run off without telling us..."

The two then stayed silent for a moment, not knowing what to say next. Yang took the initiative as she decided to talk about the real issue between them.

"Look Weiss, it's not like I don't understand why you don't like faunus in general. I mean, I can't blame you...but you still insulted my best friend," Yang said as she gave a sharp stare to the heiress.

The blonde brawler could clearly tell Goku didn't care about the heiress's comment in the least, but she didn't feel right at all if she just let that slide quietly.

"I h-have to agree...I might have said too much," Weiss still had some doubts about the martial artist but she did think she went overboard yesterday, she attributed to her being so agitated at the time.

"Might have? Seriously, you still don't trust Goku do you?" Yang's blood was starting to boil again. She couldn't believe the heiress. As far as she could tell, Goku had done nothing that could be considered 'evil' in her eyes and yet Weiss was still having doubts about the guy.

"I had a lot to think about yesterday! Blake, the faunus, the White Fang...I just don't know what I'm supposed to think right now..." Weiss answered sincerely, eyes casting downward.

None of them said anything after that as they continued searching for Blake.

* * *

Ruby was, for a lack of a better term, speeding through the streets right now. Too bad it only lasted thirty seconds before she got tired and decided to settle down on a nearby bench.

"Where are you Blake?" Ruby said, gazing at the blue sky, wondering where her team member was.

"Perhaps you need some assistance?"

The new voice startled Ruby as she got out her seat. After calming down a bit, she took a better look at who was just now talking to her.

"Salutations! It is nice to meet you again Ruby!" It turned out to be Penny, happily greeting Ruby who was still recovering from her initial surprise.

"Hey there Penny. Didn't see you there...Oh! I'm trying to find Blake, you know where she might be?" She asked, shaking her head as she tried to shake off her initial surprise.

"Oh! You're looking for the faunus girl!"

"Wait, how did you know that?" None of them could have known Blake was a faunus before yesterday, she didn't know how Penny could possibly know if she had only saw Blake once.

"Uhh, the cat ears?" Penny said as she pointed towards the top of her head.

"Huh...No wonder she likes tuna so much…and wears that bow all the time ," Ruby realized as she remember the many times Blake had asked for tuna whenever they were eating and also never seeing her taking off her bow.

"Goku is also not a human. What is so weird?"

"Of course he's not, Goku's a faunus," Ruby waved her hand, disregarding what Penny said about Goku.

Penny was thinking otherwise but decided it would be better if she focused on helping her friend.

"I will help you then Ruby," Penny smiled.

"Really? You don't really have to..."

"Nonsense, you are my friend after all. By the way, where are the rest of your friends?" Penny asked, looking around to see if she missed anyone.

"No, it's just me. Yang and Weiss are searching somewhere else and I didn't want to disturb Goku..."

"I see. Then we shall search every speck of dust until we find Blake!" She declared, hugging Ruby's neck which caused the scythe wielder to feel embarrassed.

* * *

"So, what's the plan right now?" Sun asked Blake, the two walking around an alley.

"I still don't believe the White Fang is behind all those robberies. They never had that much of a need for dust when I was still a member..."

Once Sun heard what the cat faunus just said, he started walking in a circle as he started talking, "What if they did? Hear me out, the only way we could prove they weren't there is that if we check out the one place they would mostly go to and if they aren't there, that proves the White Fang didn't do it, right?"

He stopped as he realized Blake was giggling a bit. It was small but it was definitely there. Blake noticed the monkey faunus staring at her, she quickly hid her embarrassment as she composed herself.

"Problem is, I don't know where that would be?"

"Well, while I was hiding on the ship, I heard some guys talking about a huge shipment of dust coming in from Atlas,"

"How huge?"

"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter huge."

"You sure?"

Sun only gave her a confident grin, signaling that he knew what he was talking about.

"Then we'll have to wait there at the docks."

"Sounds like a plan," Sun was glad that she was including him.

With a renewed purpose on where to go, they started walking to the docks.

* * *

Yang and Weiss were still walking around, searching for their missing team member. They asked shop owners, restaurant owners, even random passerby but none of them had ever seen Blake.

Having enough silence as it was, Weiss decided to confront the brawler on the whole 'Goku' issue.

"Well Yang...what we were discussing about earlier, specifically about G-Goku."

That immediately held Yang's attention, she wanted to know if the heiress was still being stubborn about the guy.

"Why do you trust him so much? To me, he is still only a simple-minded buffoon that has nothing in his head besides fighting and eating," The heiress really did want to know, she had associated with the martial artist for some time now but all she could see was someone, who quite honestly acted idiotic all the time.

Yang could have exploded in rage in response to that, but she didn't. If she wanted Weiss to actually change her perspective on her best friend, her usual method probably wouldn't work.

"You're probably right. He's always happy, laid back and can be pretty ignorant of social cues like Ruby. But underneath all that, he can still care about others, he can cry and he can even get angry. It's just that you don't see it very often."

"Even so, he still lacks education,"

To Weiss, education and proper etiquette is what makes a person whole. Without those, they would just be an uncouth idiot to her.

"You know Weiss. In my eyes, that guy is a genius."

"You're kidding right?" The heiress retorted, she couldn't see from possibly any angle on how that musclehead was a genius. To her, a genius would be someone like Pyrrha Nikos or her older sister, Winter.

"Nope, completely straight. You're probably thinking a genius would be someone like Pyrrha right?" Yang said, pointing towards Weiss.

The heiress couldn't deny it and who could blame her? Pyrrha Nikos was a combat pragmatist among their years, a genius who she was initially trying to partner up with after all. There was just no conceivable way that a mere security guard, even with his high combat capabilities, could possibly compare to the champion of multiple tournaments.

"Well, sure Pyrrha's good and all but compare to Goku, I would say even she couldn't beat him in a straight fight."

Weiss heard this before when the two were fighting, but she disregarded as mere exaggeration.

"Judging by your face...guess I can't convince you huh? But hey, at least you think a little better of Goku now right? Maybe even faunus in general," Yang asked, pinching her fingers.

True, the heiress thought. She definitely had a better opinion of the martial artist now... but to say she was perfectly fine with him and faunus in general would be a lie. At least Yang and her were on speaking terms again, she considered that a success.

* * *

Night had fallen. Strangely enough, Ruby still hadn't met up with neither Yang nor Weiss. Nonetheless, she was still searching for Blake as she was accompanied by Penny.

"So I surmised the three has not made up yet?" Penny asked, still remembering what she saw time when she was with Ruby and Goku.

"Yeah...I think Yang and Weiss might be better now?" Ruby certainly hoped so, she left the two alone for a good reason after all.

"Then is there no chance of Blake getting better with you three again?"

"I don't really know Penny..."

Deciding to change the topic, Penny asked another question.

"It is strange that we had not found her yet," Penny concluded.

"Yeah, I mean we've been walking around for like forever now..."

"If only we had some sort of vehicle that allows us to traverse through the skies, a bird's eyes point of view would certainly be much easier."

Ruby had a face full of realization after hearing what Penny just said, she hit her head repeatedly, feeling stupid for forgetting again.

"Why did I forget Nimbus again! Arrgghhh!" Ruby yelled, ruffling her hair, surprising the passerby around them and Penny herself.

"Nimbus?" Penny was curious, she had never heard of that name before.

"Nimbus!" She yelled as she held out both her hands.

The two waited, Penny still curious and Ruby still beating herself for not remembering. A few seconds, they saw something shined in the night sky, Nimbus was coming down from the clouds. The people nearby were understandably a bit unnerved by it, considering it was a first they were seeing it.

Once Nimbus descended, Penny immediately inspected the golden cloud, trying to see what it was made of.

"Hmmm...Perhaps it is made from the latest Atlesian technology that I am not aware of, but that is impossible considering..."

Penny felt a tap on her left shoulder, she turned around, seeing Ruby was making a complicated face.

"Um Penny, I kinda don't want to waste time so...," With that, Ruby jumped on the small cloud, surprising everyone in the vicinity by the sheer fact that a small girl was doing the impossible.

"Come on Penny, wanna ride?" Ruby believed Penny could be considered as pure of heart, hopefully she was right.

Following her instruction, Penny hopped on, succeeding on riding it, which made Ruby smile happily.

"Alright, let's go Nimbus!"

After that, the two left to the skies, leaving the bystanders around stunned, trying to process what just happened.

* * *

Goku was resting on one of the rooftops in Beacon. He had a pretty normal day, a bit of training with Velvet and some farming that he had to do. Even so, he was still worried about the cat faunus. He also noticed that he met none of the members of team RWBY today, he even asked Jaune and the others if they had seen them. Sadly, even team JNPR didn't see them, which worried the martial artist more on what they were doing. He could only let it go because he guessed they didn't want to involve him but he still felt unsatisfied and hoped nothing bad happened to them.

Suddenly, he heard a sound. It was faint, but he was able to sense it. Getting up, he immediately searched around the area, trying to locate the source of the noise. After looking around for a bit, he saw it, a silhouette. He instantly knew that person wasn't supposed to be here.

"I know you're there, come out! I don't wanna hurt you," Not responding to his warning, Goku took out his power pole.

"Power pole EXTEND!" Once it got longer, Goku swung it in an arc. The unidentified person dodged, jumping the instant Goku's power pole got close.

Once the unknown infiltrator was in mid-air, Goku took this as an opening as he jumped towards the trespasser, returning the power pole to its normal state in his ascent.

As Goku got closer, he noticed that one of his opponent's eyes was glowing bright orange, alerting him that his opponent was about to initiate an attack.

Multiple fireballs came of his hands, all of them coming towards the martial artist. Instinctively, he twirled his power pole around, deflecting them towards random direction, the deflected blasts damaging some parts of the campus as shards started forming the instant it hit the ground.

The infiltrator, didn't relent however as he continued raining Goku with fireballs. Thinking this would be a stalemate if this continued on, he stopped spinning his power pole and instead, started spinning his tail, allowing him to hover and lengthen his time of descent.

This course of action by Goku threw the unknown person off, causing him to miss some of his shots. Taking this as his chance, Goku turned around and quickly cupped both his hands, firing a small kamehameha wave, rocketing straight toward trespasser.

Once he got closer, Goku let out a strong left swift kick, his opponent blocking it with his arm. As the two continue descending in midair, they quickly got into close combat with each other.

Punching, kicking, dodging, ducking…. That's all Goku did repeatedly as he traded blows with his opponent in midair. The same could also be said for the unknown trespasser. They were both giving the same amounts of blows but they had not hit each other, not even once. None of the two had any advantages over the other when it came down to it.

The instant the two touched the ground, they both simultaneously jumped away from each other, both hoping to get some distance.

"You're pretty strong huh?"

Upon notice, Goku saw a person that was slightly taller than, he had a slim built. He was also wrapped completely in black clothing, everything covered except his eyes.

His opponent simply stayed silent as dust started to float from the ground, alerting Goku of the immediate threat that was around him.

Goku was glaring at his opponent, keeping his guard up so that he could counter what the mysterious person was trying to do. With one swoop of the trespasser's hand, the dust floating turned into spears. With another swipe, the spears started to fly towards the martial artist from different angles.

Reacting accordingly, Goku grabbed his power pole and gave a clean sweep, splitting one of them in half as the dust shards went pass beside him.

Not wasting any time, Goku started running around as he formed multiple after-images, causing the spears missed their moving target, hitting the ground instead. Even so, the spears reformed as the dust shards started hovering again, tracking for the real one again as the after-images faded.

Having enough of it, Goku quickly dashed towards him while the spears were still following like a magnet. Noticing that the martial artist was charging towards him, the infiltrator instantly knew what the monkey faunus trying to do, the martial artist was trying to bait him into using his own attack against him. Not falling for it, the black-clothed person was about to dodge the incoming shards once he thought the martial artist would jump away the instant the monkey faunus was in front of him. Surprising the man, Goku hooked both his wrists and jumped to his right and gave a hard hook kick towards his opponent's back as Goku released his tail the instant the man was sent flying. Thrown forward, the infiltrator could do nothing but withstand the shards that were flying right at him, forming a giant dustcloud as the shards collided with the person's body.

Goku waited for the dustcloud to disperse as he was sure his opponent was not down just yet.

Without warning, orange and black circles started forming under his feet. Not wanting to know what would happen, Goku rolled off the ground where the circles won't be. The instant he was out of their range, the circles disappeared, forming huge explosions around the area.

Goku thought he was lucky to have escaped, he didn't want to imagine what would have happened to him if he was caught in the middle of that. However, he did not notice a certain someone's movement from behind, causing the young martial artist to slip up as he got cut, forming a gash. Fortunately, Goku was able to dodge a fatal blow, having only his left arm cut, his sleeves ripped as a result.

Staring at his opponent again, he noticed that 'he' was a 'she' all along as he saw her mask was torn off, revealing her long hair. Unfortunately, he could not see any more due to his opponent having another set of mask under the robes. She was also now holding a pair of dual black swords. Goku could see it was formed from those dust shards.

The woman rushed towards him as she swung her right sword downward. Goku responded by moving to his right but the instant he moved, another sword was coming from below. Luckily, the martial artist was able to dodge the incoming attack, spreading both his legs as he jumped.

Once Goku got back down to the ground, the woman swung both her swords in a downward vertical, clearly having the intent of trying to kill the young martial artist. In response, Goku pulled out his power pole yet again, blocking her slash.

The two were now in a standstill as one was trying to overpower the other, their bodies shaking as a result.

Knowing this was not going anywhere, the woman extended her left leg, tripping the martial artist, making him lose his balance as he fell down. This also resulted in both her swords falling down on Goku as he was not defending himself with his power pole anymore.

Thinking quick on his feet, Goku grabbed his power pole with his right hand as he put his left hand on the ground and acting as an anchor, swinging his body away from the slash.

As soon as Goku got his footing back, he held his power pole tightly as he rushed in to attacks, swinging it from his left, his opponent responded in kind as she blocked it with both her swords. The two then started to exchange blows using only their weapons, sparks flying as their weapons collided with each other.

The woman, clothed in black swung a horizontal slash towards the monkey faunus. Goku bended his upper body downwards, dodging by the breath of a hair as some pieces of it fell off.

Not wasting any time, Goku pushed his power pole upwards, striking both her wrists, causing her to drop both her swords to the ground as martial artist got back up standing.

Recovering quickly, the woman jabbed Goku in the gut, causing him to flinch from the pain. Following the previous attack, the woman thrust an open palm on the faunus's chin from below, throwing him upward into the air, then falling back down to the ground.

As Goku was recovering from the attack just now, he immediately noticed his opponent was now holding a bow, readying to fire an arrow at him. As his power pole was a fair bit of distance away from him, Goku could only dodge the arrow as he moved to the left.

While the arrow did not hit him at all, it did however managed to hit the string that was attached to his pouch with it, causing it to drop to the ground, the one-star ball rolling out of the pouch.

The woman suddenly stopped attacking him the moment the shiny orb was out in the open, as if knowing what it was.

Goku, deciding to not take any chances, quickly grabbed his pouch and tried to take the one-star ball back but quickly withdrew his hand as an arrow suddenly stuck itself on the ground in front of him. It was clear to the monkey faunus that his opponent didn't want him to get the dragon ball back.

"Power pole EXTEND!" Goku yelled at the top of his lungs, thrusting his power pole towards his opponent.

She was wary, why did her opponent who managed to fight her at the same level would possibly use such a predictable move? She was cautious as she simply moved her body to the right, the power pole moving passed right beside her.

Goku grinned, he anticipated that. Goku swung his power pole with everything he had to the left, slamming her to the wall of a building nearby, creating smoke and falling debris upon contact.

Goku slowly walked to pick up his dragon ball, still cautious as he prepared himself just in case she was still conscious.

Tying his pouch to his belt, Goku prepared himself as he still wasn't sure if the woman was down yet. She was an opponent he couldn't possibly hope to underestimate.

As the dust settle, the woman was gone, evident by the fact that there was nothing but a giant crater on the building.

Goku immediately looked around, hoping that she hadn't disappeared yet. She wasn't. He saw the woman standing on a building, staring at him, then running off.

Goku immediately gave chase as he started running. He had a hunch that something will come out of this if he followed her. He was confident that he could keep up, even with the wound on his arm.

* * *

Yep, stick to the plan. Problem was…Blake was currently trying to threaten a hindsight, they really should have thought of a plan if the White Fang ever came, too bad they didn't.

Sun was currently on top of one of the crates, observing the situation below. What was happening right now was Blake trying to convince the members of the White Fang. He couldn't tell if it was working but regardless, he was more wary of the tall man wearing the bowler hat who was currently being held by Blake, a blade pointed at his throat.

Sun jumped down to get a closer look at the situation.

"Oh you delusional kid..." The nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick said sarcastically. He wasn't even nervous at the fact he was currently being held hostage.

"What do you mean?" Blake snapped at the criminal, not understanding.

"Do you actually think they're here by mistake, or even one of their usual outings. Hahahaha...No. You see kitty cat, the White Fang and I, we had an agreements of sorts to work together so your little preaching won't work here."

"Tell me what it is or I'll end your little operation."

"Little? You don't even want to know..."

Bullheads suddenly appeared, hovering above them. Blake watched in horror as Roman simply smile, firing a blast from his cane, creating a large explosion.

Seeing this, Sun immediately jumped in. He hoped that the cat faunus would be alright.

* * *

"Ruby, there is apparently smoke coming from that area," Penny pointed as the two were still riding on Nimbus.

"Oh, no...Come on Nimbus, we gotta hurry!" Ruby had a bad feeling in her stomach as Nimbus sped up, flying towards the area where the explosion just occurred.

* * *

Blake, for a lack of a better word, was dazed as she was lying on the ground. Fortunately, she was unhurt but she guessed it won't stay that way for long if she didn't move away right now.

She quickly rolled and started running as Roman Torchwick fired blasts at her from his cane, the blasts missing as they hit the containers that were above her instead.

"Stop trying to run, kitty...I'm not going to hurt you..." He was lying of course, he was just trying to have some fun right now. He was having fun, hat was before a banana peel was thrown off his face. Taking it off, he saw a very angry monkey charging at him.

"Leave her alone!" Sun yelled as he rushed, taking out his bo staff as he swung it at Roman.

Blocking it with his cane, he was a bit surprised that there another faunus but nonetheless, it was all too easy for the thief, "You're not brightest banana out of the bunch, are you kid?" Roman quipped as he nodded his head toward the White Fang members.

The members of the White Fang slowly started to encircle the blond faunus. Sun gulped, he was seriously in hot water now, wasn't he?

Fortunately for the faunus, Blake came to his aid as she quickly took out her katana, slashing through them as she ran in a straight line, causing the men to collapse.

Roman could only roll his eyes at what happened. He supposed even if worthless grunts were to change to filthy animals, the results would still be the same.

He immediately pushed Sun away, kicking him in the stomach.

"Now then, let's see how well you two work together, shall we?" Roman smiled condescendingly, not having a hint of worry.

The two looked at each other, understanding what the other were thinking. They nodded in agreement as they rushed the thief together.

* * *

"Penny, you stay back," Ruby warned as she didn't want the orange-haired girl to get hurt.

The two were currently above where Blake and Sun was fighting Roman. The instant Ruby observe the situation, she immediately took action, wanting to help her friend as quickly as possible.

"But I— "

Ignoring her disagreement, Ruby jumped down from Nimbus as she activate Crescent Rose. Penny, was still unsure on what she should do.

* * *

After pushing back the cat faunus and blocking the monkey faunus's attack. Roman was feeling really great about himself. Sure, the heist stumbled upon a little roadblock but he was sure he could quickly get back on track.

"You two done? I have a schedule to keep after all," Roman mocked as he pretended to look at his imaginary watch.

Blake and Sun were currently out of breath. Even after releasing a multitude of barrages of attack, none of them had phase the thief in the least. They were, in fact getting quite worried.

"Well then," Roman simply said as he was preparing to fire another blast at the two.

"Haaaaaaa—!" A voice called out, alerting the three, as Roman looked to see who it was. Blake and Sun looked up, seeing Ruby descending at high speeds, with Crescent Rose at hand.

The thief quickly lifted both his arms to hold his cane up, his body shook from the impact as the scythe collided with his cane. Ruby was hanging on the air as Crescent Rose was hooked on to his cane.

"Hello Red, isn't it past your bedtime?"

Ruby's expression didn't change as she swung her body upward and swung it down again, letting loose a fierce kick to the fierce, forcing the thief to fall down and lose his grip on his cane.

Switching it to rifle form, she aimed Crescent Rose at the fallen thief.

"Don't move!" Ruby warned the thief.

"Geez...fine fine," Roman complied, lifting both his arms.

"You two alright?" Ruby asked Blake and Sun, not turning her focus away from the thief.

"Ruby? Why are you here?" Blake asked, she was however, thankful that her leader came to their rescue.

"Came looking for you. Just glad you're safe," Ruby said sincerely.

"Well isn't that just precious...The little red, looking out for her friends. Too bad though...that I'll have to interrupt this little reunion."

Roman took the bowler hat off his head and threw it at the young huntress-in training in a circular arc. Before Ruby could pull the trigger, the hat hit her wrist, making her miss the shot.

Roman took this opening to take his crane back, immediately firing a blast at the three of them and catching his hat that was spinning itself back to him.

The resulting blast caused a huge explosion. Roman turned away from the explosion as he twirled his cane, confident that his victory was assured.

He was hoping those idiots from the White Fang were at least trying to take the crates...but he was wrong.

He saw a girl with long blonde hair, currently fighting with them with her fists, some of them even unconscious on the floor.

"Hey there! Mr. thief, you wouldn't mind me crashing in? Also, I really want to bash your head, cause you know, you hurt my baby sister and my partner!" Yang said angrily.

"Pardon me, but you're not the only one here," A haughty voice cut in.

Considering the voice was coming from behind him, Roman's eyes widen, he couldn't believe that those kids were still not down yet.

Before Ruby and the others was a huge shield, made entirely out of ice. It had cracks, presumably from the blast earlier.

Blake couldn't believe that Weiss was here...and the fact that she was the one who saved them.

"Weiss, how did you get here so quick?" Ruby asked, she didn't see her sister or Weiss earlier when she was still on Nimbus.

"You can blame your sister," Weiss said as she shook her head a bit from the dizziness, Yang winking at them.

"Weiss, why did you— "

"After all those hours of thinking and …reflecting. I have concluded that it doesn't matter. The matter of fact is, you're a member of team RWBY and nothing else matters. None," Weiss stated simply, not leaving any room for further discussions.

Blake didn't know how to respond to that, she had thoughts that Weiss would still be at odds with her. She was glad, and thankful that she was wrong.

"Touching. Well then, if you don't mind, I'll be on my— "

"Stop there, criminal!" Penny warned, blocking the criminal's way.

"Penny, it's not safe here, get back," The scythe wielder was surprised that Penny was here, she thought she was still on Nimbus, it just didn't make sense to her how she got off the golden cloud. More importantly, the young leader of team RWBY didn't want to see her new friend hurt...or possibly even worse.

"I'm sorry I did not come to your aid sooner but it's fine Ruby, I'm combat ready," Penny stated with a confident smile.

"Really? YOU? Hah, that's a good joke if any. Now then, if you— "

Penny's backpack opened up by itself, revealing a set of multiple of swords, hovering behind her in a circular arc. With a single gesture, she commanded the swords to cut the nearby leftover members of the White Fang that were unfortunate enough to meet the edge of the girl's blades.

Roman jumped back, dodging the girl's swords. He did not want to get his coat dirty, certainly not. Roman decided that it would be best if he escaped while they were still distracted by the spectacle that the orange-haired was doing. Sadly for the thief, he was blocked by a certain blonde brawler once he turned around to another direction.

"Like. I. Told. You, I'm going to bash your head and you're going to like it, whether you want to or not," Yang grinned, cracking her knuckles.

Roman sighed, he certainly hoped nothing could go worse than this. The very instant the thief thought that, he saw the little orange-haired girl firing a laser, destroying several Bullheads in the process.

The others were stunned and amazed at what Penny just did. They had no idea that she could possibly be this strong.

Having enough of tonight, Roman tossed a dust crystal towards the ground, snapping everyone out of their trance. Ruby and the other raised their respective weapons and aimed it at Roman, using it as a warning towards the thief.

Roman, however, didn't care in the least as he aimed his cane at the red dust crystal, firing it, causing yet another explosion, the smoke obscuring everyone's view.

While Ruby and the others couldn't see in the smoke, they still kept their guard up as they couldn't predict what Roman would do next.

Several moments later, a loud hovering sound was heard as the smoke vanished due to the Bullhead that was hovering above them.

"Toot-a-loo, kids," Roman said, closing the door as the Bullhead lifted off into the sky.

Ruby, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time, started chasing after the Bullhead.

"Wait! Ruby, where are you going?" Yang asked her sister, concern in her voice.

"Nimbus!" She yelled, the golden cloud descended as she jumped on.

The others starting chasing after the young Rose, hoping she was not doing what they were doing.

All except for Penny, that was. She was stopped by a man in a formal suit, pulling her on her shoulder with his outstretched hand as he shook his head, Penny staying quiet as she could only hope Ruby nothing bad happened to her new friend.

As the golden cloud, took off chasing after the Bullhead. Ruby turned her head towards the other, yelling at the top of her long.

"Don't worry guys, I have a plan!"

They couldn't be seen anymore as Nimbus got so close it was nearly a few feet away from the door that was on the Bullhead.

Suddenly, the door opened itself. Ruby prepared herself as she lifted up Crescent Rose in sniper form. Before she could react, a cane came out of the door, hooking her in. Roman revealing himself as she disarmed her weapon, putting the young girl in a hold as Ruby tried to get out of his grasp.

"Well now, Red. This is why you shouldn't have stayed past your bed time."

* * *

Yang and the others were worried, especially Yang as she was very anxious and wanted to keep her sister safe as soon as possible.

"That's it! I can't stand it anymore! I'm chasing after Ruby and if anyone of you are going to stop— "

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course we are going to find that partner of mine. We're a team after all," Weiss argued.

"We won't just stand by here and do nothing, and you're not doing it alone," Blake reassured the brawler.

"Yeah, I'll even help out," Sun proclaimed as he gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks guys...Who are you again? Doesn't matter, come one, let's go!" Yang declared as all of them started to move out.

Yang hoped from the bottom of her heart that her baby sister was safe. If she couldn't make it in time, she didn't know what she would do.

* * *

Goku was currently still chasing after the mysterious woman. They had been jumping on various rooftops for a while now. Weirdly enough, Goku couldn't actually close the distance between the two despite his best efforts.

As he continued running, he heard a loud whirling sound above. He lifted his face upward, seeing a Bullhead above him, flying at high speeds. The weird thing was, he noticed there was also a golden shine that was present behind the airship. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was Nimbus. However, he couldn't see a single sign of Ruby being there, which worried him.

Immediately stopping, the martial artist decided that Ruby's safety was much more important right now. He had a strong hunch that Ruby was in trouble at the moment, he then changed direction as he started following the Bullhead, hoping that would take him to Ruby.

* * *

"Welcome Red, to my little hideout. Flash photography is strongly not recommended," the thief joked as he sat on one of the crates.

At the moment, both of Ruby's hands and legs were bounded by a tight rope. She was however, allowed to speak, she guessed it was probably the thief had some other plans with her. Crescent Rose was also a fair bit of distance away from her, she was trying to think of a way to escape. Looking at all the men who were also in the hideout, she realized that there weren't many options of escape.

"What do you want with me?" Ruby asked the criminal.

"What do I want with you? Oh, you have no idea Red," Roman threatened as he got closer to Ruby.

Ruby gulped, she hoped she would get out of this somehow. She really should have listened to her sister's advice.

* * *

Standing in front of him was a building that looked like any other. Goku was sure he didn't mistook the place as he saw the transport landed somewhere near here. With a heavy breath, he took out his power pole, charging towards the warehouse in front of him.


	15. Rescue

Ruby didn't know what to do. Her capturer was currently engaging conversation with one of the members of the White Fang at the moment. Not giving up, she desperately search for an opening of escape but all she found were guns, lots and lots of them strapped on every corner of the building, she could guess they were either automated or controlled by a remote of some sort.

"Aren't they just a beaut? I did spend a bit of time and effort to find them after all," The thief gloated, admiring them as he returned from his conversation earlier.

"You mean steal them?" Ruby accused, glaring at the thief.

"Aren't you smart Red? And since you're so smart, you can guess what happens when you try to escape," Roman said condescendingly as he held up a remote for Ruby to see.

Ruby was getting more and more nervous as she still couldn't see any way of escape, but she wouldn't give up hope. If her big sister Yang or even big brother Goku taught her anything is that being stubborn and never giving up will always help you out in a pinch.

It did work, although not as Ruby expected. A loud crash boomed, alerting every one of them inside as they all turned their heads toward the site, trying to identify what just happened.

All they could see was falling dust and debris, probably from when the wall that fell down just now. They also saw a thin silhouette amidst it all, the members of the White Fang immediately pulled out their weapons, shooting at the mysterious stranger, making it even harder to see who the intruder was.

"Halt!" One member of the group ordered, putting his right hand up.

They stopped, and waited for the smoke to disappear.

None of them could have seen it coming, not any of the members of the White Fang, not even Roman.

A small glowing ball of energy came out from the smoke, confusing them on what it was. That was, until it suddenly changed its direction and flew upward.

Roman continued to observe the situation silently, rubbing his chin in thought at the events occurring at the moment. Ruby knew only one person who could do something like this and just knowing that, she knew it was going to be chaos soon. The members of the White Fang, on the other hand, didn't know what to expect from the tiny ball.

Their confusion was answered as the tiny light globe suddenly burst and spread into even tinier ones, all of them falling in various directions from above.

The men quickly tried to dodge the balls that were striking down at them as they scattered but unfortunately for them, the moment the light globes hit the ground, it exploded and hit most of the members of the White Fang, rendering them unconscious.

After the explosion subsided, Ruby finally saw him. Out of the blazes of the explosion, there was Son Goku.

He was walking slowly towards Roman and the others, turning his head towards Ruby as he continued on.

"Ruby! Did they hurt you in any way?" Judging from the looks of it, he guessed not but the young martial artist just wanted to make sure.

"I'm fine. Just need to get out of these ropes," The young Rose reassured as she struggled to get free.

"Hold on. I'll be there in a few seconds."

"Tonight has been a riot, I'll give you that," Roman joked, clapping his hands slowly.

"So who are you supposed to be?" Goku asked, curious of the man before him.

"Roman Torchwick. At you service," The thief bowed deeply, bewildering Goku.

"Oh! I'm gonna save Ruby THEN hit you in the face," the monkey faunus said, punching his knuckles together, confident that he would fulfill his words.

"Another monkey huh? Must be banana day or something. Well Spike, it's been...entertaining to say the least but I don't want more trouble for today so if you don't mind, I'll be bidding you adieu."

With a press of the button of his remote, the automated turrets around started firing bullets at high speed, all aimed at the monkey faunus.

None of them hit, however as Goku disappeared right in front of everyone's eyes, confusing them all on where the monkey faunus was at the moment.

As the turrets continued to miss their target due to the lack of one, Goku reappeared before the thief. Before the criminal could even react, the thief felt pain as Goku delivered a solid right hook at the thief's face, throwing him towards the wall.

Following up with that, he immediately chopped the rope off Ruby, freeing both her wrists. He was about to release the ropes on her legs before he was interrupted by sudden gunshot fires.

Goku took out his power pole from his back and twirled it around, deflecting the bullets toward the men. Their only response was to duck and cover, hoping it wouldn't hit them.

As bullets continued raining, Goku proceeded to release the ropes binding Ruby's legs as he laid down another chop, cutting the rope in half.

"So...what's the plan? Some super secret technique that's gonna bust us out of here?" Ruby asked, curious if he had any plans prepared.

Goku only blinked repeatedly, wide eyed, telling Ruby clearly that he obviously didn't think up of a plan besides saving her. Ruby put on her thinking cap, trying to find their next course of action.

"Uhhhhhh...Aha! Goku, can you distract them while I try and grab Crescent Rose?"

"Alright. Give it your best shot Ruby!"

With a nod, the young Rose disappeared, heading straight for Crescent Rose. Before she could get there however, she was blocked by a man with a large built. Not stopping even for a second, she slid under the goon, between his legs just as he was about to grab her.

She grabbed Crescent Rose and rolled her body off the ground, switching it to sniper form as she got up again, shooting the large men that was blocking her way just now, rendering him unconscious.

She let out a yelp, narrowly avoiding the bullets that came out of nowhere as some of the turrets were suddenly gunning for her now. She could tell the thief wasn't down just yet, he was the one controlling the turret guns after all.

Goku was honestly not having much trouble right now, the goons posed no challenge to him. The only thing that was annoying the monkey faunus was the bullets, they never stopped coming. He couldn't exactly destroy them either because the goons would fire at him the very instant he shifted focus. He had something up his sleeve that could help but he didn't have the time to prepare, that held true...if he was alone, that was.

Searching for Ruby, he found her zipping around in a zigzag like pattern, noticing the automated guns were aiming for her as well.

Controlling his tail, Goku opened his pouch as he continued dodging the bullets that were still firing at him. After a few seconds, his tail managed to grab a yellow dust crystal, his tail throwing it up in the air so that he could snatch it with both his hands.

Concentrating, Goku's hands started glowing with a bright shine, the light illuminating the area around him. Finally, a surge of lightning surrounded both his hands. It was moving erratically, as if it didn't want to stay in one place.

"Ruby! Stay away from those things, got it?" Goku warned, he didn't want the young Rose to get caught up by the crossfire.

Ruby held up a thumbs-up, ensuring Goku she got the message. She sped up again as the bullets continued firing.

Dodging yet another round, Goku extended both his hands, the aura surrounding his hands turned into a lightning-like beam, charging towards one of the turrets nearby.

The instant it was struck by the lightning blast, it short-circuited itself and exploded. The blast also connected itself towards the other automated turrets, creating a chain that hit all of them, destroying them altogether.

Ruby stopped in her tracks, looking around the destroyed parts of the automated guns that were falling right now. She let out a sigh of relief, knowing that nothing was constantly trying to shoot holes in her body anymore. She had aura and all, but she really didn't want to know what would happen if it ran out at a time like this.

Goku felt a bit tired after using that technique just now, not enough to render him unconscious but adding on top of the fight he had and the running around he had done this entire night before coming here, he was definitely feeling the fatigue settling in.

Wiping the sweat off his brows, he noticed Ruby running towards him.

"Nice work Goku! Now all we have to do is just beat these guys, we turn them in to the police and call it a night," Ruby said, getting more gung-ho despite her being tired as well.

"I wouldn't say it would be that simple, Red."

With a click of a button, a blast headed towards the two. Reacting immediately, they both jumped back, dodging the attack.

"So you two still have a bit of strength left, I see. Let's test out how long you last, shall we?" Roman Torchwick said, brimming with confidence after knowing the two before them were exhausted. He supposed his plan of waiting and hoping they would wear themselves out worked perfectly.

"You got a plan Ruby?" Goku whispered in a low voice so that the thief didn't overhear their conversation.

"Yeah…I think it should work. But we gotta finish it right now, I don't think we can last much longer," Ruby explained, taking deep breaths as she spoke.

Recovering a bit, Ruby continued on, "Alright, so all we have to do is..."

Noticing the two were ignoring him, he decided that it was about time he reminded the two why he was a criminal mastermind in the first place.

"You can think up all the plans you want but it won't help you when you're facing this, an Atlesian Paladin," With another click of a button at his remote, a giant crate behind him opened itself, revealing a robot, the size bewildering the two.

It was enormous, several times bigger than Goku and Ruby combined. Grey in colour, it was armed with two energy guns on both its arms, rocket launchers mounted onto its backs, and guns, double-barreled guns that were situated on the sides of the energy guns.

Ruby was losing confidence at her plan the longer she stared at the thing but she snapped out of it as a hand suddenly placed itself on her right shoulder. Looking to her right, she saw Goku, smirking confidently.

"Don't worry about it! There's no way we can lose," Goku said, pumping his right fist.

That was all the reassurance that the young Rose needed, "Thanks Goku, but we do have to change the plan a tinsy bit," Ruby explained, pinching her fingers.

While the two were conversing, Roman was climbing up the robot, eventually getting inside the cockpit that was located in the center of the thing. Positioning himself just right, he activated it, several holographic displays appearing before him. The thief was impressed by the technology, he would have to thank his employer after this as he started piloting the thing.

Without warning, it charged forward at a surprisingly fast pace, delivering a punch at the scythe wielder, flinging the scythe wielder in mid-air.

"Ruby!" Goku was about to go help the scythe wielder but saw the Paladin was about to unleash an energy blast on her so he did what he would usually do, he kicked the robot's arm away, causing it to misfire and shooting the ceiling of the building they were in instead.

Goku used the Paladin as a platform, somersaulting backward to the ground.

"Power pole EXTEND!" With that, the pole extended itself, and continued doing so as it chased towards the thrown young girl. As soon as it got closed to her, Ruby grabbed on to it tightly.

Once the monkey faunus saw Ruby holding on to his power pole, Goku swung it towards the enemy they were facing. Roman immediately countered by piloting both of its arms, blocking the swing.

It was strange to the thief that the scythe wielder was not hanging on to the pole anymore, she was just there a few seconds ago after all.

Suddenly, his felt a banging inside. It was Ruby, hanging upside down, banging on the cockpit, inspecting its hardness. Not wasting any more time, Ruby ran upwards as she cut down the rocket launchers that were on its back, causing them to fall down on the ground with a huge thud. Following it up, she ran around the robot and destroyed any part of the Atlesian Paladin that had weapons on it.

Roman couldn't tell what was going on outside, but he was not pleased, not one bit. He shifted the paladin's position, trying to shake the girl off his ride but it didn't succeed as Ruby stubbornly held on to it, not letting go, even if she was starting to get a bit dizzy.

Roman clicked his tongue, he was getting very fed up with all this. Letting loose his rage, one of the Paladin's hands broke off contact from Goku's power pole, swinging itself away and coming back in the form of a fist.

Goku was pushed back by the force of the punch just now as he got thrown to the ground with his power pole returning to normal size beside him.

Now that the monkey was temporarily dealt with, Roman set his sights on Ruby.

Noticing that the machine stopped moving, Ruby jumped off it as she had a premonition of getting smacked to the wall if she didn't. She was now standing beside Goku again, preparing herself in case of another attack.

Roman, wanting to end this as quick as possible, pressing the controls for the energy guns that were supposed to be strapped on both its arm. However, nothing happened even when the thief tried to do so several times.

"What in the—Of course… That's what their plan was," Roman grumbled to no one in particular.

"Alright! Now we just gotta finish him," Maybe it was the adrenaline rushing, or maybe because Goku was by her side but Ruby was confident in their victory now that the robot's attack range got shortened significantly.

"Hehe. Let's do this Ruby!" Goku smiled confidently despite the fight now being over just yet. Nodding to the other, Ruby rushed forward, confronting the giant robot while Goku took out yet another Dust crystal, this time it was the colour green. With the crystal in his right hand, Goku closed his eyes and relaxed his breathing, concentrating.

Ruby was swinging her scythe right and left at one of its legs, damaging it bit by bit. The Paladin tried to counter, punching but was unable to lay a scratch on the young Rose, only making cracks on the ground. Sure, it caught her off guard at first by how fast it was but she was Ruby Rose, her very semblance was speed, she had no trouble dealing with an opponent only at this level.

As Ruby continued engaging combat with the giant robot, Goku finally opened his eyes again. This time however, his right hand was glowing with a tinge of green surrounding it. He slowly pulled the power pole off the ground. With his right hand touching it, the power pole started glowing translucent green as well.

Noticing that Goku finished charging his attack, Ruby backed away as she positioned herself beside Goku.

Roman didn't know what was going on but from what he had seen, it was probably something troublesome. Having no weapons on hand, Roman's had no choice but to move the machine he was piloting, dashing across the floor.

"Power pole EXTEND!" With all his might, he swung it in a right upward direction as it continued to extend itself.

The Paladin put both its arm up, blocking like the last time. This time however, Goku's power pole was bursting with wind and with one fell swoop, the Paladin was sent flying in mid-air.

"Ruby! Do it now!" Goku yelled, certain that this would be the best chance they'll get.

Ruby went off on a running start, following the direction of the wind. She eventually sped up, forming a giant tornado surrounding the Atlesian Paladin, the winds carrying her upward as she slashed the robot repeatedly in a circular motion.

It was huge, not just huge but it was large enough to engulf the robot entirely. Rose petals covered the tornado, most of them scattering due to the intense speed of the greenish wind.

Roman could do nothing but hit his head repeatedly in various angles due to the wind throwing the Paladin like a ragdoll.

While the young leader of team RWBY continued throwing the thief around, Goku was cupping both of his hands, bluish white light gathering out of his palms.

"KAA...MEE...HAA...MEEEE…" a ball of energy started to form as Goku waited for the perfect moment to fire.

The tornado started to slow down as Ruby stopped spinning around, sticking Crescent Rose on the outside of the cockpit, piercing the metallic alloy.

No longer was the Paladin the frightening and powerful figure it was like before. Now, it was only in tatters as it was scratched in multiple places.

Roman gulped, his throat almost got punctured by a gigantic scythe that was poking inside the cockpit. He didn't know what Red and Spike were planning but he could tell, this would not end well for the thief.

"Goku! Now!"

With that, Goku moved his body forward, outstretching both his arms, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" An intense beam of light came out of palms, heading towards the still ascending in the air robot.

Noticing the laser that was heading towards her, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose slightly towards her left, where the direction of the beam was coming from, which tilted the Paladin too so that its back was directly in front of the incoming beam.

The very last second before the wave hit, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose out, jumping up, not wanting to get caught in the blast.

And then it struck, the beam hit so hard the entire thing exploded into pieces, the beam piercing through the roof as it continued going up into the night sky.

* * *

Out in the distance, Yang and the others were still running around on the streets, searching for the Bullhead. They were exhausted sure, but their leader took priority over their fatigue, and no way were they going to let her down. Not Yang, not Weiss, not Blake, not even Sun.

"Argghhh! Just where is it? When I find that guy, he is going to get a beating even if his bones are broken when I get there," The blonde brawler blurted, she couldn't help but feel a mixture of anxiety, anger and fear.

"If only we had some kind of tracking device..." The heiress wondered.

"It's not like we don't have a rich heiress amidst us," The usually silent one retorted.

"Hey!"

"Will you guys pipe down and—"

Suddenly, a small bluish pillar of light caught their eyes as it illuminated the sky, almost like fireworks.

"Woah! Wonder who did that?" Sun asked, impressed by what he was seeing.

"The answer is clear as day," Blake answered.

"Right, only one idiot has the gall to do such a thing," Weiss added, even she was sure who it was.

"And that's one of the reasons why he's my best friend. Come on guys, I can bet Ruby is right there," Yang beckoned, she knew it wasn't a guarantee that Goku would be with Ruby at the moment, but for some reason, she just believe he would be there no matter how crazy it seemed.

The other three merely nodded their head. Thus, they started running towards the pillar of light.

* * *

Roman was falling. His entire body was bruised and battered, he didn't know how but he was still alive and conscious somehow. Everything was also falling as pieces of the Paladin and rose petals were spread out in the air, falling with the thief. Even his hat was falling somewhere.

A round of gunfire was shot. The thief forgot, the girl was still up there.

He was right. Ruby was jumping on multiple leftover pieces of the robot as she used it as platform to descend further down, getting ever closer to the criminal.

Roman knew what the young Rose was trying to do. He couldn't believe this was all planned, the tornado, the beam, even this. He underestimated the two, he never thought a young girl that was in way out of her head and a filthy animal that has a brain capacity of a footstool could possibly pull this off. Even so, the thief had zero of intention of losing, even in this kind of situation.

Luckily, his cane was nearby. He grabbed it and prepared himself as the young Rose lunged herself at him.

Goku couldn't do much as he exhausted almost everything he had just now. All he could do now was witness the fight that was happening before him. He believed that Ruby could finish this.

The thief swung left, Ruby narrowly ducking as she swung Crescent Rose, Roman blocking just in time.

The two stared off as their two weapons trembled due to the contact.

"Give it up Red. Even if you capture me here, does that really make you a hero? Oh sorry, does that mean you saved humanity when you're supposed to be fighting the Grimm out there?" Roman sneered, he was never a fan of saying that term, he didn't know what compel him to blurt it out here.

"I don't know... All I want to do... is to be a huntress that can make everyone feel safe!"

With that, Crescent Rose broke off contact with Roman's cane as Ruby reeled it back in.

"HAAAAAHHH!" With one loud yell, Ruby swung it again but this time she hooked Roman's legs, Roman felt the pull as his entire body bended backward. Taking this as her last chance, Ruby swung her body above Roman and with a push of a trigger of Crescent Rose, she hastened her descent as she slammed both her legs down onto his gut, causing the thief to cough up saliva, and then he saw red.

The two fell down like a meteor when they crashed. Goku had to cover himself due to the debris flying all over the place. He looked over once the smoke started to disappear, he saw a small crater on the ground. The thief was unconscious, evident by his lack of irises on both his eyes. Ruby, on the other hand, was bending her body, holding on to Crescent Rose to support her footing. Now that the fight was over, she felt her entire body was in pain.

She noticed Goku was smiling at him, his right eyes half open as he held a thumbs up, Ruby beaming at the praise.

What they both forgot was the still falling pieces of the Paladin. Fortunately for Ruby, none of them hit the girl as they fell.

Both Goku and Ruby blinked profusely, not knowing what just occurred.

"Wow that was close, nice work Ruby! I wonder how we're gonna get back though..." The martial artist asked, not knowing how they'll do anything at all at this state.

"Maybe we should just call the—body failing, good night…" With that, Ruby blacked out as she fell to the ground, sleeping.

Goku did not exactly know what to do right now, he could move sure, but that was about it.

His worries were answered as someone burst through the door.

"Don't move. You are all under arrest cause the police has just arrived!" That person turned out to be Sun, he was pretending to possess a gun as he scanned the area.

Goku, knowing the person at the door, waved his hand at the blond faunus.

Noticing the martial artist's presence, Sun was about to wave back but was hit by a sudden burst of speed pushing him, spinning him in place.

Weiss walked in, both her arms hugging themselves. Followed by Blake, who decided to stop at the door and helped Sun get back his balance, placing her right arm and holding Sun's right shoulder tightly.

"Thanks..." Sun said, still dizzy from the spinning he just did.

"No problem," Blake answered coolly.

"Goku! Where's Ruby? You two alright? Where's Torchwick?" The person that just dashed by Sun just now was indeed Yang. While she was glad Goku was here, she was worried as she hadn't seen her little sister anywhere

"If you're looking for Ruby, she's right there, that Roman guy is there too," Goku pointed towards the crater in the middle.

Hearing that, Yang dashed towards her little sister, looking to see if she okay.

Turning his head back again, he saw the heiress, staring at him in close proximity. The martial artist smiled awkwardly as the white-haired girl wasn't saying anything.

After a few seconds, she finally spoke.

"Thank you," The heiress bowed gracefully. There were no sarcastic nor was there a hateful tone in a voice, Weiss was being truly sincere in her words.

"Err...no problem?" Goku answered, confused as he scratched his chin.

"I...I know I was harsh on you yesterday, and I regret it. You've proven me wrong and I am glad I was since...you saved my partner," Weiss explained.

Goku broke into a gigantic smile, "Don't worry about it Weiss. I know you would do the same for Ruby."

"You actually—Nevermind..." Weiss's face reddened, embarrassed and surprised that he actually remembered her name.

Several sounds of gunfire rang throughout the room, alerting them. They turned their heads toward their source and saw Yang carrying Ruby in a bridal carriage. The young Rose was sleeping soundly as Yang carried her in the blonde's arms.

"What exactly was that?" Blake asked, both her cat ears straightening.

"Oh...nothing, just a little something for Mr. thief over there," Yang replied, an innocent yet strangely frightening smile on her face.

None of them wanted to know what she just did, and they probably shouldn't ask either.

"Now, how about we all go back?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, that would be great...but can anyone help me walk. Hehe, I feel really tired right now," Goku said, yawning as exhaustion was starting to take a toll on his body.

"Alright, leave it to me my kinda maybe cousin," The other monkey faunus in the room said, pointing to himself as he carried Goku by the martial artist's left arm.

"Hold on now. We still have to call the authorities to arrest these fiends," Weiss pointed to the fallen men.

Blake steeled her gaze. Sure, Roman Torchwick was stopped but she had a feeling that they'll be more involved in the White Fang in the future, she would have to prepare herself until that day comes.

"Now that you mention it, didn't we just leave those guys back at the docks and didn't call anyone, so..."

"Aha. I knew that would happen so while we were searching for my partner here, I called beforehand," The heiress gloated, puffing her chest.

"Huh...who knew having a Weiss would be useful," Yang joked.

Sun snickered, Blake had a small smile on her face while Goku was just too tired and confused upon hearing what Yang just said.

"Of course I—Hey!"

They all bursted into laughter while Weiss pressed her Scroll for the police, pouting as she did so.

* * *

A bit further away from the gang. Atop a rooftop, a black-clothed person had observed what just happened at the warehouse. Suddenly, two people slowly came out of the shadows.

On the left was a pale, well-built young man. He had silver-gray eyes, gray hair which was partially slicked back while it was unkempt at the front. His attire consisted of a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket, a single notched belt and his arms were protected by sets of rerebraces and vambraces.

On the right was a young woman who had medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair was a light, mint-green cut with a straight fringe and bangs, two long locks on each side at the back of her hair. She wore a white top and a cropped olive-colored undershirt, white shorts which was decorated by a belt.

"What do we do now that Roman is captured?" The young woman asked.

"The same as before. Nothing's change. However, we have to look out for this Goku person, he might be a detriment to the plan and...I have finally found a missing dragon ball," The black-clothed woman answered.

* * *

"What you all done had been extremely reckless, even if you saved the day," Glynda Goodwitch reprimanded team RWBY and even Sun.

They were all currently sitting in Ozpin's office, a chair for every one of them to sit on.

Ozpin placed both of his hands together, observing the situation as Glynda was giving them a good talking to.

"I feel like I've been here before...What do they call that again?" Ruby asked. She finally awoken after a few hours of rest but the very instant she did, she wished she didn't as she was being scolded by Miss Glynda...again.

"Déjà vu," Blake answered her leader.

"Oh yeah, that..." The young Rose trailed off...

"Were you two talking?" Glynda warned, whipping the ground.

"No ma'am," Ruby froze up, even to this day, she was still somewhat afraid of the woman.

"Now then, where was I?"

Feeling the need to interrupt, Ozpin decided that it was enough punishment for all of them.

"No need Glynda. I think that's enough, how about one week of cleaning up the school and we'll leave it at that," Ozpin calmly explained.

"Any objections?" The older woman's steely gaze shut them up, they couldn't possibly refuse.

"Wait, even me? I'm not even from here," Sun reasoned.

"ANY objections?" This time, Glynda whipped the floor, emphasizing her words.

Sun immediately gulped, nodding his head repeatedly.

"Good. Now run along now children, you'll need your rest for tomorrow."

Not wanting to stay here any longer, all of them quickly walked out of the room but the instant they closed the door, they all put their ears behind it, trying to eavesdrop on any further conversation inside. They did so only because they knew Goku wasn't here yet so they were definitely looking forward to whatever happens later.

The two heard a knocking on the window. They turned their heads and as expected, it was Son Goku knocking on the window, Roman tied up in his arms.

Ozpin stared at Glynda, gesturing her to let Goku do his usual thing. Begrudgingly, she nodded as she took out her wand. Ozpin looked at Goku, nodding.

Goku proceeded to swing his entire body towards the window, breaking it as they both entered the Roman. The pieces were put back together as Glynda twirled her wand around.

Goku set Roman down, forcing to thief to stand while he was still tied up.

"I knew this place was crazy, even the inside," Roman quipped.

He was now wearing nothing but a simple white t-shirt and long black pants. All his weapons and clothing got confiscated, even his bowler-hat. Right now, Roman Torchwick was unarmed and had nothing that could help him escape. He was also sporting a new look, a huge black blue spot was covering Roman's right face. The thief had a guess who did that but could do nothing about it, it didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell to the now-captured criminal.

"Silence. You have no right to speak here, you are only here because—"

"We need to decide what to do with you," the headmaster of Beacon finished.

"What decisions? All you have to do is just lock me behind the slammers and poof, problem solved."

"If only it was that easy. Knowing a criminal mastermind like yourself, it would be no trouble at all if you wanted to, for say escape from prison," Ozpin stated.

"That's why you guys brought him here?" Goku asked, confused as even he knew that bad guys usually go to prison.

"That's right. We already came up with another solution but it would take until the beginning of next semester so we would need a temporary measure in the meantime," Ozpin explained, calmly sipping his cup.

"Aww...I'm flattered. You think I'm so good that you think even the police are incompetent when they're dealing with me," Well they were, he couldn't remember how many times he escaped from their so called prison bars.

"Silence! You need to learn how to shut that mouth of yours," Glynda warned, whipping her whip as a warning.

Roman, however was undeterred by it, "You know that trick only works on those kids right?" The thief smirked.

"That is quite enough. Goku, we asked you here because we have a request to make of you."

"Okay?" Goku questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"The thing is. I proposed to the staff members of the school that they will take shifts watching after our 'guest'. He will be placed in a special room, so to speak. I was hoping you would also participate, especially during semester break, seeing as some of us will be gone during that time. Your help will be much appreciated."

"That means I wouldn't have much time to train with Velvet. I was planning a new training schedule too..."

The two looked at each other, then broke off eye contact as Ozpin spoke again.

"How about this then? We'll give Miss Scarlatina permission as well, as long as you're there of course."

"Okay then sure," Goku replied, elated that he would still be able to train with the bunny faunus.

"Seriously, do you have brain damage or something? I'm surprise you actually have a job, more than anything else," Roman whined, it wasn't like these goody two shoes could actually hurt him, he doubt they had any bite in them.

"Now that that is taken care. Let's move on to you Roman Torchwick."

"Oh, I thought we were talking about me."

The two stared off, silence momentarily taking over the room.

Roman decided it would be better if this ended soon, he still wanted to recover those attacks from yesterday after all.

"Alright, let's get this over with already."

"Yes but before that. Goku, would you mind if you take the others outside away from this office, I would like to keep this conversation private after all."

"Ahahahaha," Goku laughed, scratching the back of his head as he nodded, opening the door. The others fell the instant the door was opened.

"It seems that a one week punishment isn't enough," Glynda stated with a cold glare.

"We'll just go now," Yang said awkwardly as they all left, this time for real, Goku following them from their backs.

"Just before you all leave. Although it's a bit late, but let Glynda and I congratulate you all on a job well done, you all acted like true huntsmen and huntress."

All of them beamed at the praise, the were glad what they did yesterday was the right thing, even if they might have to clean up the school for longer than a week, each one of them thought it was worth it.

They all left the room, leaving the three to converse with each other.

"So, what can I do for you two?"

* * *

"It's too bad you'll still be at Beacon during semester break...I bet dad would have loved to meet you again," Ruby was planning on bringing Goku back home again but not this time, she supposed.

"Oh yeah... Say hi to Taiyang for me," Goku grinned, remembering the older man.

"I bet dad misses you, even if he does complain from time to time," Yang added as the three started to laugh, remembering those days.

"So let me get this straight, you two will be heading back home while I have the room to my self during that time?" Weiss did want to catch up with her homework after all, this would be a great opportunity to do so if the two sisters weren't around.

"You're not the only one," Blake interrupted, hinting that she would be around as well.

"Great, then this will be a good chance for you two to get closer to each other," Yang said happily as she hugged the two.

The two rolled their eyes and smiled at each other. Knowing what they just went through the other day, they will live with each other just fine, even if they were left alone.


	16. What's Underneath

Some time had passed since the incident with Roman Torchwick. News spread to the people of Vale that the infamous criminal had been finally captured. However, what the public didn't know was that the criminal in question was not in the custody of the police, but in the hands of Beacon Academy's very own headmaster. The headmaster of said academy was able to convince the authorities that it would be safer if the thief was in Beacon's custody until a certain someone from Atlas would come to pick him up.

* * *

It was currently the start of semester break, Ruby and Yang were at the front gates of Beacon Academy, preparing for their trip home back at Patch, evident by the luggage they were carrying. Accompanying them were their teammates, Weiss and Blake.

"Bye guys! We'll see you when we get back!" Ruby said, waving her right hand at the two.

"Want us to bring you guys back a souvenir or something?" Yang jokingly asked, there was not much she could actually bring back to give to the two, except bottles of milk that was.

"No thanks. We're good," Blake replied.

Weiss suddenly looked around the area they were at, as if she was looking for someone.

Curious, Ruby decided to ask the heiress on what she was doing, "Weiss, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for that oaf Goku. He should at least be here with us right now to say his farewell to you two," the heiress huffed. Even if the martial artist was slow on social behaviors, he should at the very least understand that he was needed here.

"If you're worrying about that Weiss, don't. We already said our goodbyes to the guy," Yang explained, with her sister yelling in agreement.

"I supposed it's alright then," Weiss relented but she got curious on something else.

"Then where exactly is he?" Now that she thought of it, she still didn't know where exactly did the martial artist live.

"He was talking about training with Velvet somewhere..." Ruby answered honestly, it wasn't the first time he said that to her.

Yang lightly punched her right open palm, "I'll have to train if I want to keep up with him," Yang grinned, excited at the idea of getting a rematch with her best friend. The blond brawler was deciding on getting some training in, she didn't want to be left behind in the dust after all.

"I suggest you two get a move on, unless you want to be late," Blake reminded the two, knowing that it was about time for their departure.

"Wow! You're right. Come on Rubs, let's get a move on," Yang said as she started dragging her sister by her cloak while waving her hand at Weiss and Blake.

"Owh! Not so hard Yang… I can drag my own feet, thank you very much! Plus, we have Nimbus so what's the rush?" Ruby pouted as she put both her arms together.

"Yeah...no, there's no way I'm clinging on to you again just to try and ride him," Yang didn't want to remember the last time they tried that. Sure, they got to their destination but it was pretty draining for the both of them, both physically and mentally.

With that, the two disappeared as they ran towards their destination..

Weiss turned her head away from where the sisters just went, "Hopefully now this means we get some peace and quiet."

"You jinxed it for both of us," Blake said, a blank expression on her face.

"Oh that's preposterous, let's just head back inside."

* * *

In a place that was unbeknownst to most of the student body, there lies a hidden room, a huge room that only the trusted members of the staff know of. It was usually only used when emergencies occur but at this moment, it was anything but that as there were currently two people duking it out as much as possible with each other.

Velvet dodged to the left as a fist went past her. She countered with a fist of her own, however her opponent grabbed it, completely stopping the fight as the two stood in place.

"Okay! I think that's good enough for now. You really have gotten stronger, haven't you Velvet?" the person that was before her, Son Goku said.

"Un, I have you to thank for that...but I don't think I'm as strong as you yet," Velvet did indeed felt a bit of growth, but it was nothing amazing in her eyes.

"Wish I could see you go all out for once though Velvet..." Goku complained as he raised both his arms around his head. For all the time they spent training together, Goku still hadn't seen a single time where she actually pulled out all the stop. The reason she gave was because it was limited or something so it was pretty disappointing to the martial artist.

Velvet couldn't help but notice his disappointment. There were numerous reasons why she didn't do so but the one she gave Goku was more of an excuse than anything else. She felt hesitant right now, would it be fine if she went all out against the monkey faunus?

Velvet shook her head. Goku had done more for her these past weeks than she had done for him. Thus, she decided that it would be alright if she agreed to his request just this once, maybe she'll even be comfortable with it later down the road.

"Then... do you want to have a go?"

Goku beamed at the mere possibility, he excitedly nodded his head in agreement as Velvet lightly laughed.

The two then backed away a bit.

Goku prepared himself as he shifted into his usual martial art stance. The unusual thing however, was that right in front of the him, the bunny faunus was doing the exact same thing he was.

It was like looking at his own reflection. Goku didn't understand it, but the person he was facing with right now didn't felt like Velvet but it was him instead.

Suddenly it clicked for the martial artist. He recalled that there was on one occasion that Velvet explained her semblance to him. From what he understood, she could mimic her opponent's movement and judging from the situation right now, it seemed like that's what she was doing.

Goku grinned. He was getting even more excited as the two continued staring off at each other silently.

The silence was broken as Goku decided to give the first move. He lunged himself forward and spun his entire body around to give a roundhouse kick once she was within his range.

Velvet backed away just as the kick was about to hit her. Once the martial artist got back on the ground, he immediately extended his right fist towards his opponent.

Velvet returned in kind with a fist of her own that resembled a lot like Goku's.

The two fists clashed, but it ended quickly as the two withdrew both their fist and started releasing a barrage of punches and kicks.

Every punch, every kick, every move the two did was the exact same. This lasted for several moments before Velvet decided to break the impasse by suddenly jumping up in the air, narrowly avoiding one of Goku's punches.

Goku then looked up, and as he did, a hard fist was descending upon him. Instinctively, he jumped away as Velvet's fist descended onto the ground, debris flying off the ground.

Withdrawing her arm from the small crater that was formed just now, she let out a hard breath as she focused herself.

Out of thin air, a transparent light bluish weapon appeared and attached itself onto both of Velvet's arms.

It appeared to be gauntlets, with blades that acted as extension and was positioned on both of Velvet's elbows.

Velvet quickly rushed towards Goku as the martial artist prepared himself.

She swung her right arm upward once she was sure the martial artist was in range. Goku quickly moved to the right to dodge the incoming attack.

The bunny faunus immediately followed up by swinging her left arm horizontally. Luckily for the monkey faunus, he was fast on his feet. Goku jumped backward just as the blade was about to scathe him.

As soon as Goku dodged the blade, Velvet knew this would be her last window of opportunity. She clamped both her blades together and lunged her entire body forward towards the monkey faunus, with both the back of the blades as the forefront.

Goku let out a painful grunt as he suddenly felt a huge tug from his body. Before Goku realized it, his entire body was suddenly moving backward, realizing he was still not on the ground yet.

Goku lifted his eyes and met with Velvet's own. He could clearly see that Velvet was serious about facing him which surprised him for a moment, but he snapped out of it as he smiled confidently.

With that, Goku placed both his hands above the two blades and putting a bit of strength into it, he lifted himself into the air as he somersaulted forward over Velvet.

Once he landed on the ground however, Goku turned his body around, what awaited him was Velvet holding a handbag in front of him.

The monkey faunus was confused for a second, not getting how something like that could possibly help in this battle.

That all changed the moment the handbag transformed itself into a gatling gun, giving Goku a very clear idea about what was about to happen next.

Sounds of gunshots could be heard across the room as multiple bullets started flying towards the martial artist.

Instinctively, the martial artist moved his body around in order to dodge said bullets while simultaneously deflecting some of them as well. It stung a bit when the bullets came in contact with his skin, but it wasn't anything Goku couldn't shrug off.

After a while, the bullets stop.

Noticing that the bullets were not coming towards at him anymore, Goku let out a sigh of relief as he shifted his focus back on Velvet. He was surprised that she was not holding the gatling gun anymore but instead a giant sword that was even bigger than herself.

Not wasting any time, Velvet quickly rushed in as she held the sword tightly with both her hands.

Goku, on the other hand, did nothing but awaited for the incoming attack, a serious glare in his eyes.

Velvet was a bit hesitant due to Goku's strange behavior but nonetheless, she pressed on as she took a giant step just as she was in front of the martial artist and swung the giant blade horizontally with every inch of her strength that was within her.

Before the materialized weapon hit him however, Goku braced himself as he crossed both his arms before the impact hit.

With a loud thud, the monkey faunus was violently flung to the wall, making it crumble as pieces started falling off on top of Goku's body.

As the martial artist was recovering, Velvet decided not to waste the chance given to her and tried to perform a technique she had never used before in all her spars with Goku.

Cupping both her hands, the bunny faunus started chanting the same words that Goku had done multiple times in the past.

"KAAA…MEEE…HAAA…MEEEE…"

Getting up again, he finally realized what was going on. He was surprised, to say the least. There were bits of bluish glow that was surrounding around both the bunny faunus's hands. He had no idea if the Velvet could pull it off or not, but he was interested to say the least.

Thus, the martial artist simply stood still, not moving an inch of his body as he silently waited for the incoming attack.

"HAAAA!" Velvet yelled out as she outstretched both her arms, reminiscent of Goku's own. However, there was one glaring difference.

Nothing happened.

Velvet was shocked. She had thought she grasped it. Sure, she was told by Goku that it was his semblance, something called 'ki' but she couldn't help but got curious at the time. She had a feeling that her semblance could actually pull it off. She didn't know why, she didn't know how but that's what her feelings were telling her.

So, she tried it once. It felt to her this 'ki' Goku talked about was eerily similar to aura but there were subtle differences she couldn't help but place when she tried to understand it. Even so, she never actually tried firing it. She didn't exactly have a spacious and empty space she could actually fire it after all. Thus, the empty room they were in right now was a perfect opportunity to do so.

Before she could find out the reasons on why the attack didn't work, she suddenly fell down, now sitting on to the ground.

Velvet wiped her forehead, only just now realizing she was drenched in sweat, her breathing also becoming increasingly heavier with each exhalation.

"You alright? Looks like that took a lot outta you..." A voice suddenly called out to her.

As she lifted her head up, she caught sight of Son Goku, standing in front of her and looking worried, judging from the looks of it.

"I'm…ha...fine. I didn't think it would make me this tired..." She supposed she shouldn't have tried to wield Coco's and Yatsuhashi's weapons consecutively. She certainly wouldn't be capable of doing so before training with the martial artist.

Goku outstretched his right palm, offering to help get her up. Velvet took the offer as Goku pulled her up.

Goku then let out a cheerful grin, "That was exciting! It was like fighting me for a second there. You were even gonna fire a Kamehameha wave back there!" Goku yelled out excitedly.

"But... I-I couldn't do it," Velvet muttered in disappointment.

"Well...You could have done it, I think. Now that I know you showed me everything you got. We can train even harder than before! Maybe we can even get you to learn the Kamehameha properly, this is getting me excited!" Goku was ecstatic of the idea of someone else using the Kamehameha, it felt like imparting what Grandpa Gohan taught him to someone else. He wanted to imagine what would his grandpa say if he was still here.

"Do you think so?"

"Hey, I know so! You'll be fine," Goku said as he encouraged her.

A voice suddenly cut in, alarming the two in the room.

"You know? I don't want to ruin the moment or anything but I would really appreciate it if you don't try and destroy the only room I have right now, REALLY appreciate it."

At the other side of the room was the now captured Roman Torchwick, looking as rougish as ever.

After being questioned by Ozpin and Glynda, he was now temporarily placed in the room he was currently residing in. Both his hands and legs were now shackled, making it harder for the thief to actually do anything, and with a guard for every moment of the day, there was not much he could work with.

At least today provided a bit of entertainment for him. However, he didn't want it to continue due to the sole fact that the two were sweating up a storm. As dull and boring the room he currently in was, he would still like to have at least a decent smell if he was going to be trapped here for a while.

Velvet suddenly realized Goku was still holding on to her hand. She politely pulled away as Goku placed both his hands on his hip.

"What are you complaining about? It's not like you're going to be here forever," The monkey faunus whined to the thief.

"Yeah, well. I rather not have animal sweat in this room if you get what I mean."

Velvet merely stayed quiet when Goku was conversing with the thief. She admired Goku for being able to be the same person he was no matter who he was currently talking. She honestly didn't know how to act when she was around the thief.

"Oh! Then do you want to come with us to train at the forest since you don't want us to be here?" Goku asked nonchalantly, unaware at the twos surprise towards his response.

"I'm sorry Goku but we can't do that. The only reason I'm allowed here is because of the fact that you promise that you would be here in this room with Torchwick," Velvet reminded the monkey faunus, she didn't want him to get in trouble after all.

"Not that I'm gonna complain or anything. If I could get some sweet fresh air after being suffocated for so long in this room, I'll take this boon…but you… you have got to be the dumbest person I ever met," In all his years as a thief, he had never seen someone so... frustratingly stupid.

Goku was taken in surprised by the twos response. He never expected them to be so... different. One rejected his idea but was polite about it while the other wholeheartedly was on board of it but also at the same time, insulted him.

"Hehe...I know but I had this idea even when Ozpin asked," Goku laughed lightly at the two.

"Hahahahaha! Oh, that's a riot! If I could use both of my hands, I would be clapping right now, maybe you're not as dumb as you look..." Roman said, a bit amused by Goku's decision at the time.

"Why Goku?" Velvet asked, wanting to know the monkey faunus's reasoning.

Goku looked around the area, trying to be cautious even if they weren't anyone around other than the present three there.

He leaned closer to Velvet as he tried to whisper, "You see. It's because I found someplace new in the forest and I really wanna go there right now."

Velvet was surprised by the news, to say the least. To think there would actually be something that no one had found yet in the Emerald Forest. It almost sounded like some sort of treasure hunt if they try going there.

Regardless, she still didn't want Goku to go there, with Roman of all people so she tried her best to change his mind.

"Honestly Goku... I don't want you to go at all. You can't just go together with Roman, what would happen if he escaped?" she didn't want to accuse the thief of anything but just from observing the conversation he had with Goku just now, she had a bad feeling that the criminal would jump at any chance of escaping.

Goku suddenly clapped both his hands together, bowing his head in desperation, "Pleeeease Velvet! I really need your help with this, there's no way I can do this alone! Plus, if you're there, there's no way something bad will happen."

Velvet was a bit taken aback by that but she was also happy at the compliment. She didn't think Goku wanted her help so much. However, there was something that Goku said that she just couldn't ignore.

"You need my help? Have you possibly went there beforehand?" thinking a bit further, it was the only explanation as Goku being there would clearly be more than enough.

Goku awkwardly looked sideways, trying not to meet the bunny faunus in the eyes, an attempt to somehow put this topic to rest. Velvet, however did not want to let this go as she tried to meet him straight in the eyes, which slightly surprised the martial artist.

"Please Goku...I just want to know," Velvet pleaded in a worried tone that even Goku couldn't help but spill the beans.

"Okay! Okay! I got it...Truth is, I kinda found something there but I can't get through it."

This certainly surprised her, something that the martial artist couldn't pass through. Surely if he couldn't do it, then there was no way that she could be of any help to him.

"Then why do you need me for? If you couldn't do it, then there is no possible way I-"

Her sentence was cut short as Goku suddenly interrupted her mid-way, "No way Velvet! You're the only one that can help me with this!"

After that was said, Velvet's mind went into a deep state as she tried to make a decision. There was no way of unconvincing him from going there it seemed and he was also being obstinate in taking the thief with him as well. On one hand, if she didn't go and just allowed this, something unforeseen might happen and she would feel guilty for not being there. On the other hand, if she came with the monkey faunus, she could possibly stop anything bad from happening and help Goku on his request but it would also risked both of them getting into trouble.

After a while, the bunny faunus finally made a decision.

"Alright then, if you think I'll be of help then sure, I'm coming with you," She said as she lightly nodded her head.

Goku was elated at her response, it sure put a lot off his chest. He wasn't kidding around when he said Velvet was needed for this.

"But...we're going to be extra careful when we're there okay?"

"Don't worry Velvet! With you here, there's no way anything bad will happen," the martial artist declared confidently.

"If you say so..." Velvet muttered as she put her finger on her chin, deep in thought.

"Yoohoo! You're forgetting someone here you two beasts," Roman cut in.

The two then turned their attentions back to the thief. They seem to had forgotten his presence for a few seconds.

"You know Spike, if you want to try and keep me out of the loop, you should have tried to...I don't know, make sure I don't hear it at all," The thief complained with a grunt.

"Oh man! Well...guess you're definitely coming with us then," Goku said as he grinned wildly, causing Roman to get a bit uncomfortable at the eeriness of that smile.

Velvet merely stayed silent as she had a faint feeling that Goku was doing that on purpose just now but decided not to say anything.

"Alright then, let's go there right now," The martial artist said excitedly at the two.

"This better be worth it," The thief muttered under his breath.

* * *

The three were now inside the Emerald Forest, which was located at the end of the southwest of the forest. The martial artist laughed when the thief was panicking while they were being flung there thanks to Goku's power pole. Luckily, Velvet fared better than the thief and because of the power pole, they were able to get here with time to spare.

"Alright then, what are we supposed to look at here Spike?" The thief complained as everything he saw was still the damn same, green, green and more green!

"Yeah...What exactly are we looking for here Goku?" Velvet asked as she tried to look around what they were supposed to find. So far, there was nothing remotely different than anywhere else here in the forest, perhaps beside the boulder here but it wasn't anything that unusual.

Goku merely smirked as he pointed toward small boulder that was beside them, which served only to confuse them even further.

Not bothering to explain, Goku merely started running as jumped in the air, kicking the boulder, making it crumble altogether.

Before the two could ask what was going, Goku picked up one of the pieces and threw it somewhere else.

The two noticed that after the rock was removed, they saw a pile of leaves covering the ground, which make them curious on what was underneath.

The two moved closer as the martial artist removed the pile of leaves stacked on the ground.

Once they got near, what they saw caught them off guard, to say the least.

It was a hole.

A rectangular, almost shaped like a box and it seemed like it could certainly fit a person inside. What was surprising however, was that when looking closer, there were staircases leading downward, only slightly visible due to the light outside.

Goku started walking down the stairs as he turned his head, beckoning the two to follow.

"Ladies first," The thief said as he pointed his head downwards.

Velvet merely shook her head in disagreement, not letting her guard down.

Roman clicked his tongue, he had to try after all. Begrudgingly, he let out a heavy sigh as he followed the martial artist into the darkness below.

Velvet decided to take one last look around before she descended into the dark abyss as well.


	17. Trials

The three were descending downwards as they walked on staircases. Once they finally reached the end, Velvet and Roman were in shock at the sight before them.

It was a giant room of some sort, dark but not enough that it was impossible to see, with debris scattered all around, cobwebs on corners of the room, the walls even seemed like it could even collapse at any moment and from the looks of it all, it was as if it had been centuries since anyone had come down here.

However, what really held their attention were the multiple squared tiles at the end of the room. There were tiles on the ground that was arranged in a square grid and to both of the walls as well and across these tiles was a giant circular door of some sort.

Each tile was only about as wide as ones' foot. There was also a line in the center of the circle, suggesting to them there were two pieces of the material made from inside.

Ignoring their still shocked expression, Goku slowly walked towards the said tiles.

The sound of the monkey faunus's footsteps snapped them out of their trance as Velvet quickly followed after Goku while Roman merely scanning the room, trying to find out what he could in this place.

"You know Spike, it would be nice to see if you, I don't know… explain!" The thief complained to martial artist as they kept moving.

Once Goku came to a stop, he turned around and began explaining.

"I was trying to get this thing to open. The last time I was here, I tried opening that door there but nothing worked, then I noticed these square thingies..."

"Tiles Goku," Velvet corrected.

"Yeah those! Anyway, I noticed there were some scratches on some of them and thought that it might opened the door, so I tried stepping on a bunch of them. Too bad nothing happened though..." Goku said disappointedly.

Velvet decided to observe the tiles while still speaking to the martial artist, "Could you possibly show us Goku?" She needed to have an idea before possibly thinking how all this worked.

"Sure!" Goku yelled out excitedly.

The martial artist quickly put one foot forward toward one of the tiles and each one of them sank into the ground as the monkey faunus went into a series a steps, stepping across the panels with a certain roughness and skill to it.

After taking three steps forward, the martial artist quickly jumped towards the right side of the room and kicked one of the panels on the wall, surprising the two a bit as they didn't even thought that the walls would be necessary for it.

As they continued observing, Goku placed one of his hands on the wall and spun himself in the air back onto the ground.

Once he landed, the martial artist jumped around in a zigzag fashion while still moving forward and finally ending it as he stepped on the last panel at the very edge of it.

When Goku turned around to see their reaction, he noticed that Velvet was thinking hard on it, judging from her expression while Roman was just rolling his eyes by what he saw just now.

Velvet decided to voice her opinion on the matter once Goku was beside them again.

"Hmmm…did you perhaps also figure something other than this, Goku?" She had a feeling Goku knew more than what he was telling right now.

Goku placed his arms around, thinking back to his first experience here.

The instant he remembered, he immediately told the two, "Oh yeah! There's also a bunch of scratches on those panels over the left side as well," Goku explained as he pointed in the direction he was talking about.

Velvet walked over the panels and squatted down to inspect the floor.

While she was doing that, the thief decided to talk to the monkey faunus, it sure beats not doing anything right now.

"Say Spike, why the sudden interest in this damp dark hellhole, not like there's going to be a fat load of treasure if you open the door."

"I don't know, it just feels like it would be tons of fun," Goku said with a cheerful grin plastered onto his face.

"Should have known that would be your answer..." The thief still couldn't get around how simply oblivious the martial artist was, it disgusted him in a way.

The two noticed the bunny faunus was standing near them again. To them, her face tells them that she figured out something.

"I think I have a good guess on how it works now," Velvet said in an analytical manner.

"Goku, you mentioned that the tiles you stepped on had scratches on them, correct?"

The monkey faunus simply nodded his head in agreement.

"After looking into it, it seems that there are specific numbers of scratches on each one of them you stood on just now, that's why you stepped on them in specific order, right Goku?"

"Heheh, that's what I thought, it took me a while to even realize it though..." Goku said confidently as he rubbed his nose.

"I see... there seems to be tiles that are needed to be stepped on, both on the right side and the left side, perhaps simultaneously in order for the door to open."

"Woah, so that was it! I knew bringing you here was a great idea Velvet!" Goku said excitedly, praising his training partner.

"Please don't get your hopes up too much, it's just a guess..." Velvet wasn't so sure herself, even if she was the one who suggested it.

"Nah, I believe in you. So that means we need two people for this right?"

The two then stared at the thief, which made the thief raised an eyebrow in response.

"Don't look at me! Hands preoccupied remember?" Roman said as he lifted his shackled arms.

The two returned their heads back, facing each other.

"Then all I have to do is follow your every movement and hopefully the door would open..." She just hoped she wasn't wrong about all this.

"Alright then, let's do this Velvet!" Goku yelled in anticipation as he readied himself.

Velvet quickly followed suit as she readied herself the exact same way as Goku was in.

In an instant, the two started moving in synchronization. To Roman, the two were moving as if they were dancing and their movement entrance him a bit, only a bit however.

The two then jumped towards the wall of their respective sides and continued on. Once they got back onto the ground again, the two instinctively jumped around, just like with Goku before and ended it in the same way.

The moment they touched down, they waited for several seconds to see if any changes would occur.

Unfortunately, it never came.

Goku was scratching his head in confusion as he was sure they didn't do anything wrong just now.

Velvet drooped her head a bit, she was disappointed in herself for exciting Goku earlier. Perhaps it would have been better if she didn't come at all.

"You two beasts forgot to go up," The thief said as he destroyed the momentary silence.

The two turned towards him, not understanding what the captured criminal was talking about.

"Like. I. Said. You two beasts miss the tiles on the ceiling."

The two lifted their heads up to see if what the thief was saying was true or not, and it turned out, he was right.

There was another floor of panels above them, high up in the room.

Velvet was surprised she didn't noticed that, she assumed that it attributed to the thief's usual habits so it was easier for him to actually be able to notice it, something Goku and her wouldn't be able to pick up as fast as the thief.

"Wow! Man, I didn't even notice that! You've got really good eyes Rick!" The martial artist shouted out in amazement of the thief.

Roman could feel his eyebrows twitching but decided against responding as only an idiot would respond to a naive fool like that.

"Anyway, I suggest you two hop to it, we don't have all day and I don't want to camp out in a damp place, even a mastermind thief has standards you know?" But then again, he was going to be back in an entirely white room...

"Before that...Goku, can you get up there and see which one have scratches and count each and every one of them so that we don't misstep later?" The bunny faunus knew she couldn't do it efficiently, neither can the thief, not that he would be willing to help anyway...

"Alright! Leave it to me!" Goku said confidently as he punched his left open hand.

Roman had to let out a snort at that one, which caused the two faunus to stare at him, "Really? Listen here little bunny, do you really think him, HIM of all people can count?"

Goku placed both his arms on his hip as he replied back to the thief, "Hey, I can count...Yang beat that into me," The martial artist proclaimed proudly.

"Excuse me if that's not comforting."

Velvet cut in the conversation as she didn't want to waste any more time, "Umm, Goku...If you don't mind?"

"Oh, got it," With that, Goku took out his power pole from his shoulder and jumped upwards as he extended the power pole, also pushing him along the way.

With Goku busy dealing with the matter, Velvet decided that now would be a good time to have a conversation with the thief.

"Roman Torchwick...you—"

"Please please, call me by my real title, which is the master of thievery, the dashing rouge Roman Torchwick!"

Velvet simply stared at him as the thief completed his sentence. The silence was broken as Velvet continued where she left on.

"Right...I'm just here to say that as huntress in training, I'm not letting my eyes off you," Velvet stated.

"Oh ho, well aren't you a teensy bit too nice about your approach little bunny, since you're even telling it to my face? Seriously, if this is the future huntsmen or huntresses of this hopeless place, then I absolutely fear for the future of this about to be wasteland," The thief gloated, not afraid of the young woman before him.

Velvet only remained silent, glaring at the criminal before her.

Roman suddenly realized something as the bunny faunus kept staring at him menacingly, "This isn't just about the whole I have to do this because of duty shtick, it's because of Spike isn't it?"

She said nothing as the thief continued on.

"Is it because I mocked one of your own kind? I mean, it's not like this is a first, right? I bet you beasts have been treated like that for who knows how long. So, do you feel anger? Frustration? Or maybe even…" The thief mocked as he continued on, trying to gaud her.

Velvet shook her head, "No. There's no way I—"

"Tch. You're a goody-goody two-shoes as well, almost as bad as Red is… both you filthy beasts and wannabe heroes disgust me."

Before Velvet could reply however, Goku dropped back down as the power pole returned to its original length.

"I think I got it. Let's do this one more time!" Goku was feeling pumped, he was sure it was gonna work this time.

"Okay then. I'll follow your lead then Goku," Velvet replied as she activated her semblance.

The two repeated the same steps as last time, stepping the appropriate panels and running through the wall.

As they stood on the last one on the floor, they then took off as they jumped high up in the air and landed a kick upwards at the same time, and hitting another with their hand, using their leg as an anchor to swing themselves toward their target area.

The instant the last panel was hit, a clicking sound could be heard from the circular gate, alerting the two faunus.

Instinctively, the two immediately landed a hard kick into the circular door as they descended back to the ground, simultaneously hitting the door at the exact moment.

With a loud thump, the door slowly opened itself up as the two got back on the ground, Roman slowly walking towards them.

"It's about time. The next one better be at least more entertaining than you two jumping around like idiots."

"Then do you want us to tie you up here so you can wait for us?" Goku said innocently, without any hints of malice in his voice.

"You know what, forget it. Let's just get a move on," For some reason even now, Roman still couldn't have much of an upper-hand when it came to conversing with the martial artist.

Thus, the three moved on as they passed through the door.

What appeared before them was something strange to the three.

A few meters away from them, lied two doorways. The left one was completely coated in white while the other was entirely black. They could guess that at least two people are needed to get across.

"So, what do you think we should do here Goku? It seems like it requires at least two people for this one…" Velvet asked as she was unsure on how to proceed.

"Hmmm..." Goku mumbled as he tried to decide, he was trying his hardest to think but unfortunately, the two only seemed to be same to him.

"You two beasts better get a move one, it's not like you're going to figure something out just standing out here. In fact, it doesn't suit you Spike. After all, what's life without risks?" Roman quipped.

Goku realized that the thief was right, he shouldn't be thinking so hard about it, he should leave that to people who were smarter than him, "Yeah! He's right, let's just get in," Goku said as he punched his fists together.

Velvet didn't know what the thief was planning, hopefully it wasn't anything dangerous to all of them but she did agree with him for this instance, it was just uncharacteristic of Goku for a moment. However...

"How exactly do we choose here? We also have to consider that there is someone with us right now," Velvet said to the martial artist, hoping Goku had an answer to her question.

"Then Roman comes with me to the right one over there," Goku said, pointing towards the black door.

"I'm not even going to comment," Torchwick mumbled to no one in particular, annoyed that at one time the monkey faunus could get his name wrong and then the next, he gets it absolutely right.

Velvet was still unsure about all this but she would just have to put her trust in the person who agreed to train him in the first time, it was the least she could do.

"Right, then I'll go with the left."

The three started moving, Velvet to the left while Goku to the right, followed slowly by the still reluctant Roman.

"You know Spike, I don't exactly have to be with you right? I mean, this little playground is for you two to play around, not for someone of my particular…standing," The thief said, he was hoping that the naive fool would really put him behind, perhaps letting him find a chance to escape.

"Nah. You're just gonna try and escape aren't you? Haha, Glynda would have my head if I let you go," Goku said as he put his arms behind his head.

"Hey, can you blame me Spike? The food here is terrible."

"Really? I think it's pretty good," Goku said, remembering the many times he devour the cafeteria's food supply.

"That's because you gobble up everything like a trash disposer while I am a connoisseur, a person with high tastes, it's only natural that my taste differs from you after all," The thief bragged to the monkey faunus but Goku wasn't listening as he was getting excited to know what was ahead, which annoyed the thief.

Once the two finally stood before the door, they heard a clicking sound as the door opened itself, Goku pressed on while Roman was already regretting his decisions for the day.

The very instant they were inside, the door immediately shut itself and everything around them turned black, which surprised the two as they couldn't see anything at all.

Roman decided to take a step forward but the moment he put his foot forward, he felt his entire body became weightless as he suddenly fell down into the abyss below.

* * *

On the other side, Velvet was having a major problem as well, specifically concerning her vision as everything inside the room was too bright, forcing her to constantly close her eyes.

As Velvet bumbled around while trying to figure what was going on, she felt a sudden push from her right side, causing her to yell out in pain as crashed against the wall.

She was pinned to the wall for a second but fortunately, she was released as the unknown object stopped pushing her.

She was now lying on the ground, with her chest and face down.

Velvet was panicking right now, how could she not have noticed it happen?

Even with her sight robbed, she still had her ears. However, it seemed that even with her sensitive hearing, she could only hear the sound that was coming from Goku and Roman instead, thus making it hard for her to hear anything else.

A sudden yell coming from Roman Torchwick was heard as she was still trying to gather her thoughts, which made her worried for the two in the other room.

Wait, if she could hear the two, then that means that she could also communicate with them.

"Goku! What's happening right now? I just heard Roman Torchwick's scream! Are you two alright?"

Seconds passed and there was no response. It would mean two things to the bunny faunus, either Goku and the thief couldn't hear her or they were...

* * *

Roman feared for his life for a second there, he had thought that it was actually all over for his thieving life but lo and behold, he was still hanging on, literally.

Luckily, Goku was quick enough to grab onto Roman's hand before he fell off. Goku had a gut feeling something was wrong beside everything being dark here, and it was a good thing he was right.

In one move, Goku pulled Roman upwards as the thief was still trying to absorb the fact the he just almost died. Not that he never went through anything like that but he would rather not die out of something he couldn't control.

Once Roman was up again, he decided to thank the monkey faunus for helping him out. Something he never thought he would say honestly.

"Th-th I mean not bad Spike, keep this up and I might not hate you as much as those other filthy beasts," The thief change his first word in his sentence as he couldn't bring himself to say the word.

However, the monkey faunus was ignoring him and was searching his pouch for something.

"Hey, did you-" And then it hit him, his voice couldn't be heard. Why didn't he figure this out before, it was probably because of that stupid two words he was trying to say just now. Nonetheless, the trial they were in right now was more annoying than he initially thought.

Goku took out a red dust crystal as he closed his eyes and started concentrating on the object in his right hand.

Slowly, a small fire started burning in the martial artist's right hand and illuminated throughout the a small space they were occupying, revealing Goku to Roman and the death trap earlier, which seemed to be a bottomless pit, with nothing that possibly hints to any kind of way to pass through it.

"Wow! That's really deep, good thing I caught you huh Roman?" Goku blinked his eyes repeatedly, confused for a second before also realizing that his voice was not coming out.

"No way! What's going on here, I can't hear my own voice," The monkey faunus said in a surprised manner, still unable to hear anything at all.

The martial artist suddenly felt a bump on his left shoulder, he turned around and saw the thief. Even with the current dark surroundings, he could tell that the thief was not pleased from the looks of it.

Roman tried to say something toward the martial artist but he couldn't really hear anything, which Goku realized that even the thief's voice couldn't be heard.

While Goku was still taking all this in, he noticed, although really hard to see that the thief was pointing his head toward Velvet's side, as if there was something that the martial absolutely needed to see.

And there was, surprisingly.

Goku could actually see the other side. However, all he saw was Velvet bring surrounded in a giant white-like aura. Goku immediately rushed towards as the bunny faunus was currently being pummeled by something but he was stopped as he crashed into something invisible even if there was nothing there.

"Owh! What was that?" Goku yelled in pain as he rubbed his forehead.

Putting his right hand forward, the small fire in his hand allowed Goku to see that there was some sort of wall in front of him.

Knowing there was nothing he could do, Goku could only watch and hoped that his training partner would get out of this by herself.

* * *

Velvet was not having an easy time, she was struggling to even get up after being pummeled multiple times from different sides. She couldn't count on her hands how many times she had crashed to a wall. Luckily, her aura hadn't depleted...yet.

She needed to figure something out quick but there was nothing she could actually work with. She had tried everything from searching anything on the walls to the ground for a hint out of this but nothing could be found to help in this situation.

The only thing that she was fully aware however, was the situation with Goku and Roman. From what she heard just now, it seemed the two were alright and they also can't hear any sound of sorts, which made sense why earlier the martial artist didn't respond to her.

It seemed like that while she couldn't see anything, however the two could see her from the other side but they couldn't exactly come and aid her.

The bunny faunus suddenly had an idea, and what looked to be her only hope.

Velvet stood firm as she pointed towards both her bunny ears while she still had the chance, hoping that Goku was able to see her and take the message. She wasn't pining much hope on Roman seeing that he would rather not help out in this situation at all.

She just hoped that her aura wouldn't run out before anything could be done.

* * *

Goku tried his best, racking his brain around but he came to only one conclusion, break the wall down.

Just as Goku reeled back his left arm, preparing to land a good hit to the obstacle before him, he was stopped however, when the thief stood before him, confusing the martial artist.

Before he could react however, the thief quickly pointed towards Velvet, trying to make him see what the rabbit faunus was doing at the moment.

Confused, Goku did as Roman instructed.

Velvet was currently wiggling her ears around, which certainly baffled Goku, to say the least because he couldn't get what she was trying to convey to him.

It took Roman a while but he figured it out quite easily, seeing that these stupid trials always have some sort of themes. Looking at the martial artist, he probably still hadn't understood anything.

He certainly could try ordering her around but he didn't have the reflexes to respond to the situation at hand and doubted that the young woman would actually hear him out since she didn't trust him so his only chance of escaping this deathtrap was to rely on the naive fool.

Roman tackled the martial artist light to get his attention back on him. As Goku shifted focus, the thief tried to explain to the martial artist about what he needed to do as he pointed towards the monkey faunus and opened his own mouth, which only served to confuse the martial artist even further.

The thief didn't stop as he continued on by pointing towards Velvet now, and wiggled his ears as well, just like the bunny faunus before.

Goku was only scratching his head in confusion as he witnessed the scene before him. After the thief was done, the martial artist could clearly tell that Roman was frustrated with him.

Goku turned his head towards Velvet again and witnessed that she was trying her best to dodge the incoming attacks but for the most part, she was not getting much success.

The martial artist couldn't just give up, Velvet was counting on him so he closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to remember what both Roman and Velvet was trying to tell him.

Then it suddenly hit him, he finally connected everything together and knew what had to be done.

Seeing the martial artist's eyes, the thief could tell that the monkey faunus finally got it, Roman was relieved for that fact as he would rather not suffocate here due to the lack of oxygen if the rabbit faunus got killed off or something.

* * *

Velvet didn't know how much she could take this, it felt like that one more was enough to finish her off. Her breathing was heavy, sweat was pouring all over her body and she felt pain all over her body.

It seemed like whatever hope of finishing this trial was flickering away.

That was, until she heard a familiar voice.

"Velvet! Keep moving forward while I tell you where it'll come from," Son Goku yelled out, his voice had a comfortable warmth to it as she no longer felt that situation was as hopeless as she thought.

Velvet mentally prepared herself as she started to slowly walk onwards, heightening her hearing just so that she can respond to Goku's words in time.

"Right!"

Velvet immediately jumped forward, dodging the attack as she could hear an object crashing to the wall on her left side.

As she landed on her feet, she felt a sudden pain from both her legs but she endured it as she needed to press on, both Goku and even Roman were counting on her.

"Left!"

Velvet rolled forward on the ground, narrowly dodging yet another pillar.

As she continued to struggle, more came as Velvet continued to avoid them.

Eventually, she was within a few feet away from the door, even if she was unaware of it.

"You're almost there Velvet! I can see it now, the door's right in front of you!" The martial artist yelled out from the other side.

Knowing that fact was a relief to the bunny faunus. Slowly, she dragged her feet forward as she outstretched her in an attempt to reach the door.

"Up Velvet!"

However, she couldn't respond in time and felt a huge pressure suddenly atop of her back, pining on her ground, causing her to let out a sharp cry.

Nonetheless, the bunny faunus still kept on going with all her might, even with the object on her back as she tried to reach the door with her right arm.

The instant her hand was in contact of the door, a loud click could be heard throughout the room as the door slow opened itself, revealing the exit of the room.

Not wanting to take another chance, she used whatever strength she had left to get out of the room as quick as possible.

As soon as she was out, she slowly walked towards the other door, hoping that would also release Goku and Roman.

* * *

Goku let out a sigh of relief as he saw the bunny faunus was able to successfully leave the room. He was worried for a second there with the last one, all they had to do now was wait for Velvet to save them.

Roman wasn't that optimistic however as there could also be a chance she would kick the bucket before she even got here.

A minute passed and nothing occurred…until a clicking sound could be heard once again but this time on their side, causing the brightness within both rooms to return to normal.

The thief and the martial artist finally found out the reason why they couldn't go through earlier. I was because there was only a huge pit in front of them. Even Velvet, the one who opened the door in the first place, was not exactly inside the room with them as there was no actual floor near the door either.

That quickly changed as a bridge suddenly appeared under the door Velvet was at.

Once the bridge connected with the ground they were standing on, Goku quickly turned off the flame in his right hand and ran towards the door while Roman slowly lagged behind.

The moment Goku reached the door, he quickly squatted down to check on Velvet's condition.

Velvet slowly opened her eyes and she was welcomed by the sight of Goku's concerned face.

"Aah...Goku..." Her voice was frail, clearly telling Goku that Velvet was badly hurt right now.

"Hehe, you did pretty well Velvet. Want me to carry you?" Goku praised, giving a genuine smile to the bunny faunus.

"If…you..can..."

With that, Goku slowly and carefully placed her behind his back, as she lifted her up, giving her a piggyback.

"Guessed we should go back huh? We can try again tomorrow, you're pretty banged up and I'm getting kinda tired...and hungry too," Goku said to Velvet.

Velvet however, gave no response as she was currently sleeping soundly on his back.

Realizing that she was unable to hear him, Goku started walking back and wondered if Roman ran away or something, and surprisingly he didn't.

The thief was inspecting the wall that stopped them earlier, which surprised Goku since he thought that the thief wouldn't be interested in stuff like that.

As Goku got closer to Roman, the thief suddenly yelled out in excitement, surprising the young martial artist.

"Sheesh...you shouldn't yell so loud, Velvet's trying to sleep," Goku complained towards the captured criminal.

The thief turned his head, facing the monkey faunus, "Well excuse me, some of us are trying to make a living here. This is worth much more than 'a little sleep'."

"But you don't sell stuff, you take them..."

"And that's why you'll never move up in the world," The thief said as he let out a snort.

"But what does that have to do with what you're doing right now?" The martial artist was genuinely curious on what he was up to, there really wasn't much to get out of here after all.

Roman decided to amuse the monkey faunus, seeing as there would be no harm done after all.

"Don't you get what this thing is made up of?" Roman asked as he pointed towards the transparent wall.

"Not...really," Goku responded, tilting his head in confusion, trying to get what the thief meant.

"This is dust. A dust, mind you that both absorbs sound and redirects it," The thief explained, uncharacteristically so.

"Uhhh..." Goku said, his eyes blinking repeatedly in confusion.

"Look. This makes your voice go bye-bye and then that sound goes to another direction," He tried to explain it in the simplest way he could, and if the monkey faunus still didn't get it, well that's where his generosity would end.

"Oh, I get it now. It's like a sponge right? That means I can use them too, maybe I should get some of them..." Goku imagined that he might be able to make some new technique out of it, although it he couldn't really imagine a situation that would call for it.

"No! You idiot, you don't 'use' them, you sell them to the highest bidder. These things aren't exactly common you know?" He would know, after all. Sure, they were dusts that amplified sound but it was a first for him to hear of something that both absorbs and redirects sound in another direction.

"Wait, then how are we talking right now?" Goku wondered, he couldn't hear anything earlier after all.

"Hell if I know, must be some sort of system that controls everything here," It was strange but it wasn't entirely impossible.

"Oh, okay. Well, you're not gonna get it with your hands tied," Goku added in.

"Oh you're right..." He'll find a way to, even if he was restrained at the moment, he's Roman Torchwick after all, the most renowned thief in Vale.

"Well, we gotta get back now. Velvet needs some rest and so do I. We're gonna try again tomorrow."

"Aww, look at her, all tuckered out. I would squeal in delight if I didn't feel like puking right now but fine, I would like to be back in a clean and white void than here."

"So you don't want to come with us next time?" Goku asked but he knew he would still have to bring the thief with them, seeing as some of the teaching staff was unavailable right now.

"Oh no, you two provide much more entertainment than say, paint trying to dry," With that, the thief skedaddled ahead as Goku slowly followed him from behind, Velvet still unconscious on his back.


	18. Unexpected

"Where exactly am I?" Velvet questioned, having just awakened and still dizzy from her sudden slumber earlier.

"Oh! You're awake! You're in the infirmary right now, though too bad there was no one around when I came in..." A familiar person spoke, a voice she was indeed accustomed to.

Once she shook her head a bit, Velvet finally got her bearings back, noticing that she was currently lying on a bed in the school infirmary and Goku was sitting on a chair beside the bed she was lying on.

"How long exactly was I out?"

"Well...It's been a few hours since you slept earlier. Right now, it's early in the morning," The martial artist answered her.

Ah, so she was out for at least eight hours.

"I see...Then does that mean you are going to the underground ruins again?"

"Yup! But if you're still not feeling okay, then we'll just skip it for today."

Goku didn't have any problems skipping a day, making sure one his friends being alright was much more important in his eyes.

It was a bit surprising to her that Goku was willing to stay around like this, it was...nice of him when you considered his usual demeanor but she had other plans for today.

"No. It's fine Goku. Let's give it another try, I'm starting to get a bit interested in that place, there seems to be something that I can't quite place my finger on..." The underground ruins reminded her of something she read in a book once but whatever it was supposed to be was still lost to her.

"Really? That's great then, we'll get Roman later cause I'm starving right now," And at that exact moment, a loud rumbling could be heard from Goku's stomach.

A few seconds later, the two shared a cheerful laugh at what happened just now.

* * *

Roman was doing what he usually would do in his current condition, sitting around and doing nothing.

There was nothing he could exactly work with in a place like this, no windows, no cracks in the wall, no ventilation, no anything for a matter of fact. Just a white colored steel plated wall that was staring right at him in this infinite void. He was surprised he could still breathe normally in a place like this honestly.

Fortunately, his boredom was about to end in a few minutes, he hoped.

And he was right.

The door slowly opened itself as it revealed both the faunus, probably for the same purpose as the other day.

"Welcome Spike and oh my, seems like you've gotten better little bunny, congratulations on that. You beasts recover surprisingly quick... or is that just you?" Roman asked, his smile slowly broadening to a grin.

"Thank...you?"

Ignoring what the thief said, Goku immediately stated his reason for coming here, "So…you want to come with us again?"

"Do I even have a choice on the matter?" Considering the situation he was in, he in fact did not.

"Hahaha..." Goku laughed, scratching his head awkwardly.

Roman noticed the monkey faunus was holding something behind his back and he instantly knew what was about to happen in a few minutes from now.

"Do I really have to get into 'that' thing again, it's just plain disgusting."

What the thief was talking about was the large sack that the martial artist was holding with one of his arms, the very same sack that was used the other day to conceal Roman from being seen by the students who were still around the premise of the school while they were heading for the forest.

"Aww, it's not that bad. I used it a lot during my travels," It was a fond memory for the faunus, looking back on how he got it in the first place.

Before the thief would get annoyed again, he decided that it would be better if he just conceded to his fate, "You know what? Put me. Put me in that sack there and just get this over with."

Goku simply smiled as he opened it up, only for the thief to sigh as he slowly got into the sack while Velvet looked at the scene before her, still uncomfortable on the whole thing.

* * *

Cardin Winchester was many things but the perfect way to describe him at the moment was he was bored, extremely so. Currently, he was walking around the campus, trying to waste the day away.

There was nothing for him to do at the moment. Adding the fact that every one of his teammates was gone for break, he was left alone on his own device, not knowing what to do in order to satiate his boredom.

I mean, he could try making another plan on getting back at Jaune. The pest was still around as far as he could tell but he still had that stinking know-it-all Pyrrha to protect the squirt at a moment's notice. How that scrawny Jaune got away with his transcripts still confused him.

Then there was another pain in the butt that he wanted to get rid of.

Son Goku.

Just the mere thought of the security guard annoyed him. Everything from his stupid smile, his carefree nature and especially the fact that he was a stinking faunus.

But there was something stopping him, just like with Jaune but not exactly. Jaune was a scrawny weakling but the monkey faunus on the other hand, he was stupidly strong. He didn't want to admit it but the way he put him out of commission that day with just one tap made Cardin accept that reality.

It didn't mean he would give up revenge. No, not at all. He's strong, sure but it didn't mean he had no weaknesses, he would just have to find it and once he does...

Cardin's thoughts immediately came to a halt as he suddenly noticed the very person he was thinking about earlier a few meters away from him, Goku.

He noticed that the monkey faunus was carrying a large sack of sorts behind him, even the little stupid rabbit faunus was with him. From what he observed, the two were heading out somewhere.

A thought suddenly occurred to him, this would be the perfect time for him to get back at those stupid faunus, especially the one with the tail.

So, he revealed himself by appearing before them, surprising the two as Cardin was the last person they would expect to meet.

The thought of following them around did crossed the bully's mind but decided against it, thinking that this particular approach might work better in his favor.

Velvet was slightly taken aback by the person that was before them, it wasn't pleasant the last time she interacted with the bully and she still didn't have the fondest memories of him. She was cautious as they were no reason for Cardin to even be here.

Goku, on the other hand was more confused than anything else.

Why was someone like him here?

He was expecting them to leave the school ground without being caught, just like last time. Guess he'll have to make something up so they can get a move along.

"Heya umm..."

"Cardin. Don't you dare forget it either," the bully corrected the monkey faunus.

"Okay. So if you don't mind we're just gonna..."

Just as Goku took a step forward to his right, the bully quickly side-stepped a bit, blocking Goku's way.

Goku blinked in confusion. Why was Cardin blocking their way?

"You're kinda..."

"I want to join you faunus."

That certainly surprised the two. In fact, it surprised Goku so much he suddenly jerked backwards, hitting Roman in the process, who was still hiding inside the sack.

"Owh!" Roman said as he felt a sudden pain in his gut.

Not noticing the audible pain that was let out just now, Cardin continued on, "You want me in or not?"

"Why would you..." Velvet asked, being careful with her words.

Cardin glared at the bunny faunus, causing her to flinch in response.

"What? Can't I?" The bully sneered to the two.

Goku looked to Velvet for advice but his training partner couldn't help much seeing as she was currently staring towards the ground, her body unmoving with her rabbit ears drooping downwards.

Guess it was still a bit too much for her huh?

Goku decided that he should follow his gut like usual he supposed.

"Alright then... Welcome aboard Cu-Cardin!" Goku said as he extended his arm, signifying a handshake to the bully.

Cardin, however was not the most amiable person, turning his back towards the faunus and started walking away from them.

Goku placed his right arm behind his back as he started scratching his head in confusion.

"Geez...What's with that guy? He's the one who wanted to come with us, could have been nicer about it..."

Noticing that the bully was out of earshot, Velvet decided to speak to Goku about what just happened.

"Goku, are you sure this is a good idea especially with..."

Velvet then pointed towards the sack behind Goku.

Realizing what she was talking about, Goku tried to reassure her.

"It's fine. I bet nothing's gonna go wrong."

Velvet shook her head in disagreement, "I don't think so...trying to watch out for Roman is hard enough, but adding Cardin in as well would be just too much and if he actually knew about—"

"Don't worry about it. We'll get to it if it ever happens," Goku said, trying to reassure her yet again as he gave a confident grin.

Velvet was not as assured as the martial artist. She just couldn't bring herself to be decisive enough to refute him though, even if she felt that this was all wrong.

She was worried, knowing Cardin's personality, there would be a high chance that the bully might cause the monkey faunus to lose his job or worse, put him in danger but...she still couldn't tell Goku off, she just couldn't.

Velvet mentally kicked herself for not being more assertive, it's situations like these that she hoped she was more like her leader, Coco but she just wasn't, she wasn't anyone great.

Not noticing Velvet's mental dilemma, Goku called out Cardin as he suddenly remembered something.

"Hey! You're gonna need to bring a weapon! We're not going to somewhere comfy!"

Cardin immediately came to a halt. It never occurred to him that following these two dirty animals would possibly bring him to any sort of danger.

The bully pondered for a bit. Maybe it wasn't too late for him to back out here, this revenge thing can't possibly be this important to him, right?

"Hey! It's not too late if you just wanna go back, we don't really mind right Velvet?"

Noticing that Goku was looking at her, Velvet slowly nodded her head in agreement. She was secretly hoping the bully would reconsider his decisions so that the risk factors would be minimized.

Cardin thought about it for a while but in the end, he decided to persist in following the two faunus. Even if it seemed petty, even if it was stupid, there was no way he can back out on getting some payback, it was just who he was and always will be. Plus, he was training to be a huntsman. If something as stupid as 'danger' was going to stop him, then he was never supposed to be here and he just can't have that, Cardin Winchester is someone who wants to be a huntsman one day. No, will be a huntsman.

Taking out his scroll, Cardin started inputting some commands into the device while the two faunus looked on, not knowing what was about to happen.

The two noticed an object that suddenly fell down from above, right beside where Cardin was standing on.

On closer inspections, it turned out to be one of the many rocket propelled lockers the students used to store their weapons in.

The locker opened itself, revealing Cardin's mace to the two.

Grabbing the mace and holding it around his shoulder, the bully proceeded to stare at the two as he gave them his answer, "What do you think, you dirty animals?"

* * *

Upon reaching the cliffside above the Emerald Forest, Goku suddenly stopped in his tracks as he turned around towards the two.

"Alright, before we go there, there's something I gotta tell you first Cardin."

Velvet mentally prepared herself. Who knows how Cardin would react if he knew a criminal was with them on this little adventure.

"Just get it on already...I don't have all day."

He did in fact had the entire day to himself, he just didn't want the stinking faunus to have the last say in things.

The martial artist did not hesitate as he quickly placed the sack on the ground.

At first, Cardin rose an eyebrow, his expression still annoyed at the fact they were wasting their time here but that quickly changed by what was unveiled before him.

"Geez Spike, what was with the detour..."

The thief then noticed the bully that was right in front of him, "Oh hello there..."

The thief turned his head towards the monkey faunus, trying to find an answer for the situation at the moment.

"So is this one of your so-called friends Spike? Because I say...He's a bit of a meathead isn't he? I suppose in that way you two do have something in common," Roman smiled condescendingly, mocking the two simultaneously.

"You..."

The first words that came out of the thief's mouth irritated him already.

Goku didn't know what to make of the scene before him, he couldn't exactly do anything since they would be together anyway so he figured it would be better if just let it play out.

Looking closer, Cardin suddenly realized who this was before him.

"Wait a minute...aren't you that criminal Roman Torchwick?"

The bully swore he saw the guy in the news before.

"Very good. Maybe you're not as dumb as you look, it is flattering I have to say..."

Cardin quickly walked towards Goku and before Velvet noticed it, the bully was now violently grabbing the monkey faunus by his front gi.

"Alright, faunus what is this? Why did you bring a criminal here? You better kiss your sorry butt goodbye off Beacon if you say anything wrong..."

The bully was not pleased, not one bit.

Cardin suddenly turned his head towards Velvet as well, thinking of the possibility that the two faunus were working together, "That goes for you too."

This caused Velvet to flinch again, she couldn't help but cower whenever it concerned to Cardin.

Goku, still smiling, tried to calm him down as best he could, "If you just let me, I was gonna explain you know...Plus, that's not how you grab someone."

The martial artist felt there was a need to correct the bully because he just couldn't feel any sort of pain coming from his body, even when Cardin was putting all his strength into it.

Letting go of his hand, Goku started explaining about why Roman was here at Beacon instead of the police up until the reasons why the thief was currently with them.

After Goku was done explaining, Cardin tried to process the information that was just given to him. The bully thought about it for some time and he concluded something, this was definitely better than he thought.

He could just tell Ozpin and this stupid faunus would finally be gone...but it didn't felt satisfying to him, it wouldn't be. Because of that initial run-in with the faunus, he had only been thinking of getting payback at the security guard. Plus, he couldn't really imagining of him threatening the monkey faunus this easily as compared to someone like...Jaune for example.

The bully wanted a personal payback and with someone like Roman Torchwick here and if he could make the thief follow his orders, it would be much more fulfilling for him.

"Whatever. Let's just get to the stinking place," Cardin said as he looked away, a smile unbeknownst to the others, all except Roman.

Roman wasn't as dull as the two faunus however as he caught that little detail the bully was hiding and decided to put it in the back of his mind, the thief knew the kid was planning something petty and stupid, perhaps he can use that for his own benefit.

Velvet let out a sigh of relief as the situation was settled peacefully...for now. She just hoped that nothing bad would come out of it.

* * *

"WHATTHEEHEL —"

The loud screams of one Cardin Winchester could be heard throughout the Emerald Forest as the four were currently above said forest, travelling via Goku's trusty power pole.

The bully had been cursing and swearing incessantly ever since Goku revealed the power pole to him and told everyone to grab on to it. Initially, he was confused by how such a small thing could take them where they needed to go but that confusion disappeared as the pole increased in length with no signs of stopping.

Cardin, having been the first time travelling in such a way, had a similar reaction as Roman's initial one. In this case however, it was just overall worse and much more annoying.

Goku, being the person he was, ignored Cardin entirely as he was getting excited at the many more challenges that awaited them at the underground ruins.

Velvet, being uncomfortable with the whole thing was covering both her ears in an attempt to block out the words that were being uttered by the bully.

Roman, on the other hand, was bemused at the whole thing. He was actually sorta looking forward to this little adventure, especially with this bunch of colorful characters. He was especially going to have much fun with the new one, much fun indeed.

* * *

"This sure brings back memories...Feels like we've been here yesterday," Goku said as he stood inside the ruins once again with the others, swinging his right arm around in a circle, getting prepared for what's ahead.

"It was yesterday Goku," Velvet corrected the martial artist.

"Still, this is going to be exciting!"

"Life threatening, more like," Roman chimed in as he was having the suspicious feeling they further they went in, the more dangerous it was going to be. Nonetheless, it couldn't be too much for him of all people to handle considering treasure might be involved in this and he wanted to sneak some just in case.

Roman turned around, facing the bully who was staring all over the place "Are you just going to stand there and gawk around like that? Because I and presumably these two would like to get a move on."

"Don't tell me what to do! You..." Cardin responded, raising his fist in the air.

While the two was left to on their own, Velvet suddenly realized something as she proceeded to tell Goku what it was, "Goku, seeing as the last time they were traps here...is it possible that the traps have deactivated and we only have to move to the rooms that we haven't entered yet?"

If it was the opposite, it was going to be a long and tedious process that Velvet really hope wasn't the case.

"Huh...Didn't think of that. Oh well, we'll just have to see what happens."

The martial artist grinned in anticipation, whether the trapped rooms were still activated or not, it wasn't going to stop him, not one bit.

While Velvet was glad that he was gung-ho about all this, she was still understandably worried. Roman decided to cut in their conversation to get things moving.

"Why don't you take the lead Spike, considering you're probably the only one here that can take hits the most."

With a nod, Goku proceeded to move while slowly followed by the three, Cardin being the last amongst them as he seemed to be in some kind of deep trance.

Upon taking his first stepping on the one of the tiles in the room, the three were expecting something to happen but nothing occurred as they heard no change in noise, giving them the conclusion that the traps do deactivate when someone passes through them once.

"That's a good thing, it's much better than going them all over again," Velvet said as she continued observing the area.

"Aww but why? It would have been good training for the both of us you know?"

"Keep telling yourself that Spike, keep telling yourself that."

With that, the four continued onwards.

* * *

"This seems suspiciously simple," The thief said, now knowing what was in front of them.

The four were now in a new room, this one however was simple in design when compared to the others. Looking around, they saw nothing of note that looked helpful or important for their goal at hand. There was only one thing there, in the middle of the end of the room and it was a simple passageway.

Goku squinted his eyes as he tried to look for the end of said passageway but it was to no avail, he could not see an end to it.

"Can you guys see anything in there? It doesn't seem like it will end."

"Tch, don't you stupid faunus have good eyes or whatever," Cardin sneered, tired of all this waiting around.

"I can't see anything either. Perhaps this one is an endurance test more than anything else," Velvet inferred as every trial they went through had some sort of theme going on, what it was she wouldn't know.

"Not bad little bunny, seems you are the smarter one here...but not as brilliant as me," Roman said as he walked closer to the entrance of the passageway.

"Hey! If I just use the power pole, maybe we can get there faster!" Goku suggested to the three.

If he just placed his pole on the walls behind them, they can just travel across while grabbing onto the power pole.

"Don't be an idiot Spike. You better not think that all we have to do is just go across in a straight line, expecting nothing happening at all because if I was a master of a dungeon, I would have cried out of sheer disappointment," Roman explained to the monkey faunus, refuting the martial artist's idea.

"Why wouldn't it? There doesn't seem to be anything there?" Goku questioned, rubbing his head in confusion.

"Please Spike. There is no possible way that this entire passageway will not, in fact have a bunch of traps designed to attack intruders, or specifically us in this case."

"Oh I get it! We just need to be really careful then right?"

Roman was about to give a cynical response but the pure happiness that the monkey faunus exuded caused him to merely sighed as he gave his response.

"Yeah...I suppose you can say that."

Understanding what the thief meant, he figured it would be best if the he took the lead on this.

"Guess I'll go first and you guys follow me from behind," Goku explained, mentally preparing himself for what's about to come.

"Hoh...not a bad plan Spike," Roman was genuinely a bit impressed by the faunus.

"Just get a move on."

Cardin was getting impatient with all this standing around, it would be better for his bored mind if he could do anything right now.

Goku started moving into the passageway, his eyes darting all around the place as he tried to find anything unusual within.

He wasn't the only one however as Velvet was also checking to see if there were any abnormality. She was also paying extra attention to the two behind her as well, just in case things go south.

While the two were ahead, Cardin felt that this was the perfect moment for him to talk to the thief.

But before he could, Roman himself decided to speak to him first.

"So, what exactly are you planning here...kid."

Roman wasn't a fool, he knew the bully was planning something and it certainly wasn't nice…then again, whatever the kid had planned was child's play compared to what he had done in the past.

Cardin's eyes widen a bit, but quickly returned to normal as he usual glare came back.

"Don't know what you mean."

"Oh please, stop playing around with me kid, you're talking to Roman Torchwick here."

Cardin thought about it for a bit but he begrudgingly agreed with the thief, he was dealing with an actual criminal here so it was only natural for the thief to figure it out so easily.

"You catch on quick, you damn criminal. I've got some plans for you so I'm going to need you later, just you wait..."

After thinking a lot ever since he stepped foot into this place, he finally managed to gather up a plan for his little revenge plan.

"Joy..." Roman said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

Unaware by the two, Velvet was listening in to their conversation as she was fearful that Cardin was up to something and this further cemented it, she would have to keep her guard up so that no incidents will happen.

The two faunus suddenly stopped in their tracks due to the sudden noise. Noticing the two's sudden behavior, Roman and Cardin kept their guard up.

"What's the hold up, you dam—"

Just like that, a sudden foreign object flew past the bully, even cutting off some pieces of his hair.

"What was—"

"Get down!" Goku yelled out, the martial artist could tell they were more where that came from.

Roman immediately crouched down, seeing his hands were tied at the moment, he thought it best to follow the martial artist's advice in this particular instance.

Velvet however, didn't back down as she prepared herself alongside Goku.

Cardin was frozen in place, the situation right now was a first for him. He didn't really know what action he should take at the moment.

Noticing Cardin's condition, Goku gritted his teeth as he took out his power pole and readied himself in a position, intending to protect them.

And then it came.

Multiple arrows flew towards them at high velocity. Goku reacted accordingly by spinning his power pole around in hopes that the arrows don't get passed him.

But the moment the pole hit one of the arrows, it suddenly exploded on the monkey faunus, the faunus was thrown backwards, flying past his current companions.

"Goku!" Velvet yelled out as she saw Goku was thrown past by her.

Velvet's scream snapped Cardin out of his state, suddenly realizing the situation at hand. Even so, it didn't help much considering that there was nothing he could do, his giant mace was useless in this kind of situation, it was too big and slow to react with it.

Seeing that the resulting explosion caused the other nearby arrows to explode as well, Velvet took this window of opportunity to activate her semblance and her weapon.

Then, a blue light came out of the box that hanging around her a waist, materializing a holographic handbag.

With swift movements, Velvet quickly transformed the briefcase into a gatling gun. Once she did, she readied her weapon, waiting for any incoming arrows.

"Try not to blast the walls little bunny, we don't want the entire thing collapsing on us now do we?" Roman advised, he certainly didn't want to die like that, being buried to death that was.

More arrows came as they flew past the ball of fire that was left over by the explosion earlier.

Velvet immediately let loose, firing multiple rounds of bullets, making the arrows explode on the spot so that none of the explosion could reach any of them.

While the bunny faunus continued her assault, Goku got up again as he finally recovered from the initial explosion.

Ignoring his now torn and scorched clothes, Goku assessed the situation as he observed what was going on at the moment.

He saw Roman was still crawling on the floor while Cardin was just standing around there and from the looks of it, wasn't exactly doing anything for the situation at hand.

Then the faunus put his attention on Velvet, he could see that she was going all out but the martial artist knew it wouldn't last long considering the duration of her weapon.

Picking up his power pole, the martial artist quickly ran back into the scene to back Velvet up.

Sounds of gunfire died down as Velvet's weapon within her hand disappeared into nothingness. She was panting a bit out of exhaustion, seeing as she was using Coco's weapon after all, fake or otherwise.

Her ears picked up another set of noises coming towards them, she braced herself as she didn't have the needed amount of time to activate her weapon once again.

Luckily, Goku swooped in from behind as he swirled his power pole around, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Power Pole EXTEND!"

And with that, the power pole once again extended itself beyond its original length but not as long as the usual length that Goku put it out at, immediately thrusting forward in multiple directions where the arrows were located, causing them to explode once again.

Not wanting to be blindsided due to the smoke, Goku jumped over the site of explosion earlier, remaining vigilant as he landed, immediately posing in a stance while holding onto his power pole, tightly gripping it. Once he was sure that there were no signs of danger, he let out a sigh of relief as he turned towards Velvet and the others.

"Whew! That was close...You guys alright?"

"Aside from my now numb legs, everything is just dandy...Spike."

The thief was luckily able to dodge most of the arrows just now, mostly thanks to both the faunus.

"We're mostly fine but are you Goku?"

Most of them sustained next to no injury, all except for Goku himself. His clothes were in taters, scorch marks present all over his body but it seemed like the explosion didn't bother the martial artist at all as the faunus in question was undisturbed by it.

"I'm fine. See, I can still move around a lot."

Proving his point, Goku started jumping around and unleashed several quick air punches, finally stopping as he lifted both his arms with a triumphant smile.

Velvet was relief to say the least, "That's good."

"That's all fine and dandy but do we really have to continue on? This little trip here required a lot more...legwork than I first thought," Thief questioned, standing up again now that the danger was not present at the moment.

"Aren't you excited? I bet there's a lot more of these if we keep moving forward!"

"Perhaps, unless this is all pointless in the end then no," Roman firmly stated.

The martial artist noticed that Cardin wasn't exactly talking to them, not even a grunt or anything. He was a bit concerned as he tried to find out what was going on with the bully right now.

"Hmm? What's wrong with you Cardin?" Goku asked as he placed his hand on Cardin's shoulder.

The bully instantly snapped, pushing the faunus's hand away as he yelled out in frustration, "Don't touch me you dirty animal! And nothing is wrong with me, got it?"

"Sheesh, you didn't have to react like that, you know?"

Cardin just couldn't stand it any longer. First, he was useless during that whole thing earlier, entirely useless. He was frozen in place, him of all people. He had to rely on two faunus just to bail him out. Second, the damn faunus even tried to pity him, HIM. Cardin swore in his heart, he'll get revenge for this humiliation, whatever it will take just to achieve it.

Roman could read the bully like an open book. The thief smiled, he was going to be a good puppet for him to use, a good puppet indeed.

"Hehe. Let's get a move on guys," Goku said with confidence in his voice.

* * *

It has been four hours since the incident with the arrows earlier. Luckily, they had not encountered any other sort of traps as they moved along. Though, none of them let their guard down as they knew things wouldn't be so simple.

"This ludicrous path seems endless," The thief complained behind the two faunus, with a good reason too, seeing as the passageway still felt as endless as it did when they were at the entrance. The only thing that kept him going was the possible sight of treasure and he certainly hoped that it existed...or else.

"Yeah, if they're gonna make it this long, they might as well give us more things to do," The martial artist whined.

"I don't think that's a good idea considering everything possibly here is filled with traps," Velvet responded to Goku.

"Aww! But..."

While the two continued to have their back and forth, Cardin was way behind the two, eerily silent since several hours ago.

He had been thinking, planning on how to get rid of the two. It was the perfect chance he thought, nobody knew of this place so no one would save them if for say...they were trapped here. Of course, he wouldn't kill them, he wasn't that psychotic but he wouldn't mind them staying down here for several days, knowing them suffering was good enough in his mind. He just needed a way to do just that and with the help of a certain someone, it was certainly more than possible.

His musings were interrupted as he felt a sudden increase in temperature. The bully never felt anything like this, it felt like he was inside a microwave oven. Cardin looked around all over his body, sweat was pouring everywhere and it was starting to become increasingly difficult for him to breathe. The same could be said for the others as well.

"H-hey...you stupid fa..unus, what's hah.. going on?"

"I...wouldn't know...but we gotta make it cooler, huh?"

Goku was about to search for a dust crystal in his pouch, but was stopped by Roman as the thief had another idea.

"Don't...bother t-trying to use ice, S-Spike, it's pointless. We don't know how long this would last and considering all the other stupid things we went through, it would be faster if you just take out of this area."

Velvet understood what the thief was trying to say. It seemed like the traps activated here have a certain range to them, it made sense. With the trap earlier, the moment Goku went past the leftover site of explosion earlier, the arrows immediately stopped.

It was not a guarantee but Velvet agreed with the criminal, she immediately called to Goku, hoping it would convince him.

"He's right Goku! It's better if we just go across quickly."

Goku immediately understood what the two were trying to convey as he placed his hand into his pouch once again, searching for something.

What came out of his hand were two green dust crystals. He immediately placed both of them in each of his hands, a green aura slowly enveloping both of them as Goku closed his eyes and concentrated.

Minutes passed, the heat remaining ever high, it was becoming increasingly harder for them to stay conscious. Roman and Velvet understood why it was taking as long Goku did, they had no idea how long the range of the heat was, so it was best if the martial artist could get as many boost in power as possible in order for them to escape in one swift move.

Once the dust within Goku's hand disappeared, he immediately told the three what to do.

"Alright!" Goku yelled out as he grabbed ahold of his power pole, the green aura slowly enveloping the pole. Once the aura on his hand was transferred to the pole, the monkey faunus flung his tail upward to get ahold of the pole. Then, Goku's tail started spinning like a helicopter in a horizontal direction.

Goku quickly ran over to grab Cardin first but discovered the bully was already unconscious, he quickly held Cardin up with his left arm, following that up by running Velvet and holding her on his right. The bunny faunus was still conscious fortunately, but she was barely holding it herself.

"And...how hah..am I supposed to move here?"

Roman himself wasn't faring too well, he was never good with heat, even now.

Narrowing his eyes, Goku held Roman up by biting into the collar of the thief's shirt. The martial artist hoped that the thief's clothes wouldn't rip before they get out.

"You smart...simian," With that, Roman fell unconscious as well, leaving it to Goku himself to get them out of here.

Propelling his tail even faster, Goku jetted off as the wind propelled him forward. It almost felt like skiing on ice as the wind was constantly pushing him forward. He just hoped it was enough to get them out of this situation.

Faster. FASTER.

He was beginning to feel that the wind behind him was quickly getting weaker as time went on. Knowing this would be his last chance, Goku leapt forward, jumping by a wider margin than what his usual jump could achieve.

The instant he landed on the floor, he immediately let go of everything he was holding. That included Velvet, Roman, Cardin and his power pole as well.

There was a clear difference in the floor compared to earlier, Goku didn't feel the ungodly heat that was emanating from before but rather, coldness. It was a relief to the security guard, it meant they made it out somehow.

"Hehe...guess we got out, that's good," The faunus fell asleep as well, a warm smile on his face as he joined the others.

* * *

"Goku, Goku!" The voice called out, causing the monkey faunus to open his eyes once again, he was greeted by the sight of Velvet staring at him with a look of concern.

"Ah! You're awake. That's a relief."

"That was a nice nap," The faunus said as he jumped straight back up.

He looked around and noticed that they were now outside the underground ruins and was in the Emerald Forest again.

"Hey! What happened? Why are we outside again?" Goku freaked out, he was sure they were still inside before he slept.

Roman decided to answer him, "That was hours ago. You should be thanking me instead of acting like that, Spike. You're just lucky I'm a nice enough person to direct everyone here to get out," It wasn't easy, he'll tell you that, especially instructing...that one.

"But why? We didn't even make it to the end," Goku whined, he wanted to get to the end today.

"Goku. I don't think it would be a good idea to continue, we just don't know how long exactly is that passageway, it didn't even seem like we made it halfway but we did managed to get through some of the traps, deactivating them so we could get there faster next time," Velvet explained.

Goku nodded his head in understanding but then he realized something, "How did you guys bring me here if I was asleep the whole time?" He was curious seeing as the thief was tied up at the moment and Velvet wasn't exactly the type of person he could see carrying him all the way here.

"Hoh...that would be the kid over there," Roman said as he pointed towards Cardin, who was at the moment, a bit further away from the three, slumping on one of the trees in the forest.

"Really?" Goku asked Velvet specifically.

She nodded her head in response, she saw the whole thing. After all, she was the first one who got up again. Initially, Cardin was against the whole idea but the thief was somehow able to convince the bully, although it took more than mere minutes to do so.

Goku turned his head toward Cardin and yelled out as loud as he could, "Thanks Cardin! Wouldn't have made it without you," The martial artist thanked, waving his arms around.

Goku was appreciative of what Cardin did for him, whether it was intentional or not.

Cardin merely clicked his tongue as he looked away from the faunus in response.

"Well then, since you're nice and conscious now. Let's get back, beauty sleep and all that," Cardin said, it was late at night and he had enough…excitement for the day.

"Guess we better rest huh? Let's go back then, gotta bring you back after all," Goku realized as he needed to bring back Roman to the usual place.

"Hey Spike...I think I have a better idea," The thief needed to be careful around his words here, this might be a hard one but if he played his cards right, he should be able to convince the two.

"Better idea?" Goku asked in a confused manner. Velvet was a bit suspicious however, the thief was planning something.

"Yeah, why don't you let the meathead over there take me back? You two beasts should get some rest, after everything you've done."

Goku placed both his arms around his body, considering Roman's offer on whether or not if he should let Cardin handle bringing the thief back.

Cardin heard everything. He didn't know what the thief was trying to pull but he liked it. So, he slowly walked towards the three as he spoke.

"Sure I can. Just think of it as a thank you for saving me earlier," Cardin said as he let out an eerily creepy smile. He really didn't like doing this in front of people he didn't even remotely like, especially faunus but he didn't have any choice here.

"Hmmm...Okay then. Counting on you Cardin," Goku said as he placed his hand on Cardin's shoulder.

Cardin was a bit surprised by how quick the monkey faunus just accepted it this easily but he wasn't going to complain.

The bully was trying everything he could to keep it together, his teeth grinding against one another as he spoke, "No problem, friend."

Velvet decided to whisper quietly to Goku, "Are you sure Goku?"

Looking around to ensure the two didn't hear them out loud, Goku answered her with a cheerful smile, "I believe in Cardin."

She wasn't so sure but Cardin was studying at Beacon to become a huntsman, that knowledge regarding Cardin alone was a bit of assurance for her that the bully wouldn't do something as ridiculous as freeing the thief but she silently promised herself to keep her guard up tomorrow nonetheless. She might not be as capable as the amazing people she had saw at Beacon but she'll try her best to protect the both of them.

* * *

Goku and Velvet had left the two on their own as they went back to their respective living space. Cardin and Roman was currently in the secret room, given the general direction by the monkey faunus before he left it to the bully to take Roman back.

The two were silent as they continued to stare at each other.

The silence broke as Roman was the first to speak up as he was getting very tired of waiting.

"Alright let's try this again, what do you want...kid?"

"I need your...services," Cardin slowly stated, unmoving as he continued to stare down the thief.

"I'm surprised champ, if you want that why don't you just free me first? Then we talk."

"Tch, like I would scum. I only need you to get back on those two animals."

"Hoh, so that's what you want. Just as I expected… and that suspiscious behavior earlier was convincing. Hah! You're just lucky the little bunny is as submissive as she is, otherwise this conversation between us wouldn't be happening right now."

He knew, the monkey faunus was naive but there was no way that the bunny faunus was stupid, the only thing preventing it from happening was her hesitance to act.

"Shut up!" He was just about had enough with the thief's annoying mouth.

"Did I hit a soft spot there, champ? Whatever I suppose, now let's get to business...I know this is getting repetitive but seriously, what do you want me for again?" He knew what the bully was after, he just wanted to play with the ignorant meathead.

"Are you stupid? Like I said, I want to get back at those two!"

"Oh I do know, it's just fun to mess with idiots like you..."

"Why you..." The bully didn't like being treated like an idiot.

"Enough of that, what exactly have you planned out? Killing them when they're not looking, backstabbing them? Torturing them?"

Who knows, perhaps the bully had something decent planned up his sleeves.

"Tch, not until you make a deal with me," The bully wasn't stupid enough to just trust the thief this easily.

"But what's in it for me meathead, unless you're willing to free me in exchange? Just like I said earlier."

"I'm about have enough of you. Listen here, you have no choice in the matter, whether you want to or not!" He was the one in control, HIM. Not some stupid criminal.

"Au contraire, you're the one who needs me here," Roman smirked, knowing that he was definitely getting to the kid's head.

"Tch, forget it. I don't need you," Cardin said, turning his back as he started moving back to the door.

"To think even lowlifes like you would do your oh so important duties, I'm astounded really, bullies just aren't what they used to be."

Cardin ignored the thief however as he continued walking.

Just as the bully was about to leave, Roman suddenly called out to the bully.

"A little bit too quick to leave there aren't you? I didn't say no, did I?"

Cardin merely turned around as he let out a smirk, wanting to see where this conversation would go.


	19. Schemes

"This is absolutely disgusting and I rather gouge my eyes out than continue watching you eat...Spike," the one who spoke was one Roman Torchwick as he was getting more and more elated that he was unable to use his hands at the moment.

The martial artist stopped slurping the noodles he was currently eating and tried asking why Roman thought as such but what came out of Goku's mouth were incoherent mumbles and gurgles that no one could possibly understand.

Naturally, Roman and Cardin was absolutely disgusted with him while Velvet was much more composed as she was used to Goku's behavior, thanks to the time she spent with him nowadays.

"Perhaps you should swallow first before speaking Goku?" Velvet suggested nicely.

Goku blinked his eyes in confusion for a second, before realization set in as he swallowed the noodle hanging out from his mouth in one stroke, annoying the other two once again.

"I was saying, there's no way the food is disgusting, it's delicious!" Goku praised, satisfaction clearly in his voice having just eaten the noodles.

"I'm not talking about...never mind, though the food is definitely not something anyone should gush about," from the looks of it, it wasn't anything particular special.

"That's because you haven't even taken a bite outta them yet," Goku criticized, not content with the thief's answer.

"Oh please, I doubt I'll change my mind about it. Let's see the reasons why…maybe because it just looks plain and unimpressive or maybe it's the fact that we're eating underground in the middle of a tunnel that's filled with traps. You know, no big conundrum, it's just the place where we almost died yesterday!"

The thief was correct. The four were indeed at the exact area where they fell down the other day. They had headed out once again to the ruins in the early morning, most of them with the hope that this will be the final round as it was getting more and more strenuous every time they came here. At the moment, they were having lunch as Goku was feeling hungry at the time and Velvet was perceptive enough to look ahead, bringing containers of food for all of them to eat.

Of course, it wasn't enough to satiate Goku's huge appetite but the martial artist was grateful nonetheless, though he was curious how the bunny faunus prepared so much in such a short amount of time.

"Where did you get all this stuff anyway Velvet? I didn't know you were good at cooking, it tastes kinda familiar too," Goku asked in puzzlement, taking another piece of steak. It was at the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite place it.

"Oh no, I can't cook at all. Every time I tried, it always turned into a mess somehow," she would know considering how many times she attempted to cook, only for it to end up as failures. She was fortunate that her teammates help her clean up in the past though Coco had ordered her to never try cooking again. She didn't really know the reason behind it considering they had fun cleaning up anyways, perhaps it was some other reason she wasn't aware of.

"Oh. Where did you get all this then?"

Embarrassed, Velvet stuttered a bit before she was able to respond, "It was the lunch lady, she was kind enough to cook all this up for us," it was however, surprising that the lunch lady oblige so easily.

* * *

_"So girlie, why are you here? So early in the morning too, even the grimm wouldn't be awake right now!"_

_The lunch lady was a tough old bird, she had a somewhat huge physique, one can say even bigger than Port's. Her skin was brownish in colour, sporting the usual practice of a hairnet atop of her old gray frizzly hair, yellow gloves and a dirty brown dress under a matching white apron._

_Velvet was a bit taken aback by the lunch lady's loud demeanor, but she quickly snapped out of it, "Umm, I was wondering if I can perhaps ask for an early lunch?" Perhaps it was asking for too much but knowing Goku, he wouldn't last long if they went underground again but at least one pack could hold him long enough to finish their little adventure._

_The lunch lady simply shook her head, "Listen little lady, no one here gets any special treatment, everyone here has to wait until…wait a minute, aren't you that faunus girl that was being bullied by that Cardin fella?"_

_Velvet looked down in shame, it wasn't a memory she wanted to look back at after all._

_Upon seeing the faunus's response, the lunch lady softened as she tried to make it up to the girl, "Now now, I didn't mean anything from that...why, if I was there that day, I would have smack him around. How about this? I'll make you that lunch you asked just now got it?" she emphasized as she let out a huge smile, revealing her row of yellow teeth._

_"Really? Thanks so much Miss..." Velvet didn't exactly know what her name was, but this was a good time as any._

_"Milur. Dandang Milur. Thinking back on it, one of my crew did tell me that goof Goku was there to help ya out...this packed lunch is for him isn't it?" Milur asked as she eyed suspiciously at Velvet._

_Velvet tensed up as she slowly nodded her head in agreement, hoping this wasn't going to change the lunch lady's mind in any way._

_Before she could convinced the lunch lady, Milur had already waved her off, "Bah, should have known. Guess I'll have to pack a bit extra for that one," Milar liked the martial artist, seeing someone enjoy her cooking made her happy she got this job so she had a soft spot for him._

_"You'll still do it?"_

_"Eh why not? Though tell him for me that this in no way means he can just get food whenever he wants understand, or he'll be facing the back end of my spoon!" Milar answered as she started picking up the kitchen utensils._

_Velvet simply smiled in response, though a bit crude, she could tell that Milur truly cared for her training partner. She was grateful that everything went as smoothly as it did._

* * *

"Man, guess I gotta thank her later but what does she mean by taking her food whenever I want...I don't do that!" Goku whined, it wasn't like he stole food from there, right?

Having heard enough, Roman decided to speed things up as he hurried the two faunus, "That's enough chit-chat, let's find what's at the end shall we?" Roman told the two as Goku finished whatever leftover he could find.

* * *

"Tch, what a waste of time," Cardin mumbled out as the four finally reached the end of the path.

It was surprising to all of them that nothing worthy of note occurred despite the events that transpired the other day.

"You're right Cardin, they could have put more stuff for us to do," Goku agreed with the bully as he gave a cheerful smile towards him but Cardin purposefully ignored him, not wanting to give the faunus the dignity of a response.

Goku was a bit put off by Cardin's attitude. Noticing this, Velvet decided to cheer him back up again, "Perhaps there will be something interesting up ahead?"

Upon hearing that, Goku's mood instantly shifted as he turned towards his training partner with a childish grin plastered on his face, "Yeah, you're right Velvet! Bet there's gonna be something really challenging, maybe I can finally go all out!" after saying his piece, Goku sprinted towards the next room in front of them, leaving the three behind them.

"Did you really have to indulge him, little bunny?" Roman asked, voicing out his annoyance as the three followed after the monkey faunus.

The moment they caught up, they noticed that the faunus was just standing around inside the room, unmoving. The instant Velvet walked into it as well, her entire body was on high alert, sensing an unnerving presence inside the room, but at the same time, it also felt like there was nothing there at all.

Noticing Velvet's state of alert, Goku decided to inquire her about the situation they were in, "You sense that as well? Don't know what it is but this place smells kinda weird..."

Velvet agreed with her fellow faunus. There was just something unsettling and eerie about it, perhaps even dangerous, it would be best if they were cautious around this particular area.

"What are you filthy animals afraid of? It's just a stupid beaten up piece of garbage hole like the rest."

It was a crude description of the room they were currently in but it wasn't exactly incorrect. There were punctured holes everywhere, cracks forming on the wall and off of them, they also seemed to be pillars protruding in and out of the wall, as if the pillars were used to crush anyone that came here.

"It seems like this room is designed like the others, it's just that this one seems...broken," Velvet spoke up, noticing the state of the room.

"Yeah well, that just means less work for us, though it is disappointing for you, right Spike?" Knowing the darn faunus, the martial artist would probably respond with his usual annoyance about how there's nothing challenging.

"Oh, yeah..." Goku responded dismissively, his eyes still tracing around the room, trying to find any movement other than themselves.

Noticing how the faunus reacted, perhaps there was more to this room than Roman initially thought.

The four then slowly proceeded across the room, the two faunus taking point to ensure nothing took them by surprise.

Once they reached the end, the two faunus let out a sigh of relief knowing that sense of danger disappeared.

"See? Nothing happened at all you dumb animals," Cardin pointed out, thinking the two were just being paranoid.

"Yeah..." Goku wondered about that, there's just something bugging him about that room, even now.

"Forget about that, seems like we finally reached the end," Roman pointed out to the three as they observed the chamber before them.

The final area they were in was empty, it was clearly the last as there were no other entrances than the one they came from. There was not much to admire, no treasure chests, ornaments or any kind of items that was worth any sort of fortune, it was just a small empty room...except for the stone tablet that was hanging up on the wall at the very edge of the room.

Velvet was intrigued by it as she slowly walked up to it, Goku followed after her to see if there was anything interesting.

Roman, however could tell that there was no treasure after all, evident by the lack of any mechanism of sorts to lead them to fortune, so all this time getting here was just a waste of effort. It was not surprising to the thief, he didn't have much expectation after all but he was still irritated with the lack of a reward. Now that there was no longer any reason for him staying here, Roman supposed now would be a good time to execute "their" plan.

* * *

"I wonder...what do these texts actually mean?" Velvet voiced out, touching the ancient tablet, studying it thoroughly.

There seemed to be some sort of ancient texts that were written here, what they were the bunny faunus had no idea but she was still intrigued by it, it felt like the texts represent something important, perhaps not to them but to whoever built this entire underground area.

"Hmmm...what if it was a new technique that we can use," Goku said excitedly at the prospect of learning something new.

"It certainly would be something but I think the lengths to get there is what's interesting," she would be lying if she wasn't anticipating anything grandiose out of it but trying to understand it was much more satisfying to her.

Velvet pulled out her camera and took a picture of the item before them. Perhaps she could get Professor Oobleck to assist her in this endeavour, he certainly would be someone even more excited than her.

"Is it? Then I guess this was all worth it," Goku was a bit underwhelmed there wasn't anything left that was worth fighting but he reckoned if Velvet was satisfied, then he should be as well.

"Now that they're wide-eyed and distracted, all you have to do is shoot at the ceiling above and poof goes their escape route. Simple as that, am I right?" Roman cheerfully explained, after all this wasn't the only plan he prepared for this particular occasion.

The two did plan this in Roman's supposed holding cell yesterday, though it was more on the thief's part as Cardin only gave empty threats if Roman didn't come up something particular effective. In the end, Roman came up with the current plan and Cardin liked the idea of the two beasts being trapped underground for a few days, it would definitely serve them right for being so arrogant yesterday.

"Move aside, I need to shoot," Cardin said as he shifted his mace and started aiming.

"Touchy, best of luck to you though, not like someone can mess up a brilliantly simple plan like mine."

While Cardin was still positioning himself, Roman prepared himself as well as he had other plans prepared.

With a single flick of his finger, the ceiling collapsed as the blast hit it dead center.

The two were immediately alerted by the sound of the crumbling boulders as they quickly rushed to the scene. Velvet had this sinking feeling that this was no mere accident.

As soon as they arrived, Goku yelled out towards the two in concern, "Hey Cardin, Roman, you two alright?"

It was silent for a moment before a laughter suddenly burst out from the other side.

"PFT HAHAHAHAAAHHAHA! How stupid are you dirty animals?" Cardin ridiculed as he was enjoying how clueless the monkey faunus was right now.

This only confirmed Velvet's suspicions. She immediately felt a twinge of regret, ashamed of herself for letting this happen so easily by getting distracted earlier, even making her own promise that she silently broken.

Meanwhile, Goku was still trying to wrap his head around the situation as he asked Cardin once again, "What are you talking about? Stop playing around Cardin."

"You still don't get it do you? I did this on purpose, it was the only reason why this dirty criminal is with me right now," Cardin yelled out, trying to make his point.

"But why? I don't remember me and Velvet doing anything to you...Is it because of me chopping your neck thing?"

Cardin felt a ball of anger rising from his body, his teeth clenching in ire as he lashed out against them, "WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WAS? DO YOU KNOW HOW HUMILIATING IT IS BEING BEATEN BY A FAUNUS, DO YOU? YOU STUPID ANIMALS ARE BELOW US HUMANS, BELOW ME! THIS IS JUST PAYBACK, YOU HEAR ME!"

Goku didn't know how to respond to that. Sure, he might have roughed Cardin up that one time but it was only because the bully was picking on Velvet, he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

Velvet was feeling guiltier by the second, she felt her heart becoming heavier and heavier as realization set in that this whole situation happened is because of her. In her mind, she was the one who caused all this to happen.

"Do you get it now? Now stay here like the pets you are until I—urgh!" Cardin got cut off as a sudden boom resonated from the other side.

"Hey Cardin, you alright? Roman, what happened?" Despite what Cardin said, Goku could never truly hate the guy. Even if Goku didn't like how he treated Velvet or even Jaune, it didn't mean he didn't want to try befriending him.

"Sorry Spike, he's a bit... buried if you know what I mean," Roman chimed in.

"What does that mean?"

There was only silence in response. It seemed like Roman didn't want to continue on with their conversation just now.

"Darn. I guess I'll just have to break it apart," just as Goku was about to do so, he was stopped by the person beside him.

"Stop Goku! If you did that, the entire place would collapse," gathering from what she observed just now, the entire ruin could crumble any second due to what happened just now.

"Hmmm..." Goku hummed, placing both his hands around his chest, his tail going up and down as he continued thinking up a solution.

Suddenly it struck him. Goku let out a confident laugh as he told Velvet what he had in mind, "Hehe...I think I know how to handle this."

* * *

"Seems everything is in order. Time to make haste and leave the stage," Roman muttered out as he prepared himself.

"You..." Cardin called out although he wasn't in any position to stop the thief as boulders were currently situated atop of him. Luckily, there wasn't anything life threatening thanks to his aura but he was still unable to move due to current state he was in right now.

"Gotta thank this little piece of dust I was able to pick up. Otherwise it would be a hassle taking you down if I didn't have this baby," the thief explained, holding up the very same transparent crystal that was from one of the room in the ruins.

"How did you even..."

"Ah ah ah. A great thief doesn't reveal everything, in fact, he reveals nothing."

Roman couldn't believe how easy this was all turning out to be. When the stupid brat was occupied ridiculing the other two, he just quietly toss the dust shard up in the air and with the little help of the brat's precious weapon and poof, he was flattened down to the ground, too bad it wasn't entirely however.

Roman then started to turn around in the other direction, "Well then, see ya never dumbo," With that, Roman disappear as he sunk into the darkness in front of him.

All was silent for Cardin as he started to slowly regret what he had done. Was he wrong? Was he stupid to enlist a criminal's help just to get back at those two faunus. No, he couldn't be, those two faunus deserved it, right?

Just before he could think any further, a sudden scream caught his attention as it echoed throughout the chamber.

It sounded like it came from the thief but there was no way something like a Grimm was way under here, it just couldn't be possible...

* * *

"Power Pole EXTEND!" Goku yelled out as the power pole that was standing by itself on the ground extended until it reached the ceiling.

"Are you sure this will work?" Velvet asked, unsure if Goku's weapon was capable of holding the entire structure from collapsing.

"Don't know but we just hope it holds," Goku said confidently, thinking too much of it would hinder them more than help.

"I guess you're right," once again, there was just something in Goku's words that made her believe in him.

Suddenly, Velvet's ears picked up a sudden cry from the other side. Signaling Goku, the two nodded to one another as they stepped back for a bit.

The two faunus immediately sprinted towards the boulder and right before they collided with it, they jumped and gave a hard kick mid-air, causing the boulder to explode into pieces.

Once they landed, they looked around in search of the two. They immediately saw Cardin pressed on the ground, the expression on his face told them he was clearly in pain.

Without hesitation, Goku immediately destroyed the rocks as he released an intense punch, dissolving the boulder entirely.

Once the pressure on Cardin was gone, Goku decided to ask the bully about his condition, "You alright Cardin? Seems like Roman roughed you up huh?"

Cardin was about to wave the faunus off but an object suddenly went flying straight towards them.

Aware of her surroundings, Velvet immediately caught the object flying towards her, or in this case Roman Torchwick. The moment she held contact with the thief, she immediately felt a huge amount of force pressing on her, causing Velvet to skid the ground a bit before the both of them could stop.

Taking upon a closer look, she noticed Roman's clothes were now in tattered and pieces, cuts and bruises being apparent all over his body, even his right arm was bleeding at the moment.

Slowly opening his eyes, Roman noticed he was now being held upright by the bunny faunus and also saw the martial artist was standing right beside her.

"Heh...guess this is what I get huh?"

"Well yeah, so try not to escape again after we get out all right?" Goku responded, holding no malice towards the thief whatsoever.

"If only I had brought some first aid kit," She was careless, she shouldn't have put so much attention on bringing the food here.

"Watch out you two animals, they're coming," Cardin warned.

The corridor was dark back then but he saw a glimpse of "it", they was nothing he can do at the moment, but he could only begrudgingly rely on the two faunus beside him.

"What do you mean by—" Goku suddenly turned silent as he prepared himself in his martial arts stance, feeling the immediate threat before them.

After setting Roman gently on the ground as the wall supported his back, Velvet herself followed suit as she prepared for what was about to come.

Stepping out of the shadows, two figures came into view and certainly shocked the two of them.

The two figures looked exactly like Roman and Cardin except for some key differences. Each of them had black exteriors, reddish eyes and a hollow look to both of them.

"So this is what beat up Roman so badly huh?"

"Don't...let your guard down, those two...are deadlier than they appear," Roman said, coughing up in pain as he couldn't feel any strength left in his arms and legs.

"What does that even—"

Goku were cut off as a slim-like substance came out each of the two new entities, which freaked all of them out.

The slime instantly reformed itself as it took on new faces, ones they were all too familiar with.

It was like a mirror image, a very twisted image that is. It was strange and even confusing to seeing a scene like this. It was Goku and Velvet themselves. There was just something weird about fighting copies of them. Nonetheless, Goku wanted to give it his all for this fight, he had a gut feeling this was not going to be easy.

"Velvet, I'm gonna take the other me and the other you. You think you can handle the other two?"

Velvet wanted to say no, especially when it was about fighting a mirror form of the thief and the bully, it was also because she had messed up more than she had counted since earlier. She just didn't think she had it in her to possibly help in this situation. It was just gnawing on her but she didn't want to let Goku down, not at such a pivotal fight so she steeled herself as she gave her answer.

"Leave it to me."

Satisfied with her answer, the two went into a stare down with their unknown enemies, waiting for any opportunities to attack.

Watching from the sidelines, Cardin couldn't help but have a sense of fear from the four before them. He didn't know why but his entire being was shaking incessantly. He tried to calm himself down but he was unable to. Whatever it was, he couldn't stop himself from looking away from the battle that was about to commence before him.


	20. Reflection

The two faunus stood firm in their respective stances, waiting for their opponents to initiate the fight, their eyes only focused on the opponent in front of them.

However, it seemed almost impossible to do so seeing how eerily still they were. The doppelgangers were not moving, they were not even breathing judging from the looks of it.

While the silence continued, Goku was cooking up ways to turn the plain field in their favour because at the moment, things were not looking good.

Knowing that they were about to battle in such a small pathway, the martial artist figured there was only one way, and that was dragging his opponents to the room in front of them, where the room contained multiple pillars protruding in and out of the room. It was as good as a battlefield for him than any.

With that in mind, Goku took a deep breath and relaxed himself for what was about to come.

He made the first move.

Goku dashed across the pathway with incredible speed towards the clones of him and Velvet.

Taking notice of the faunus's incoming approach, the two doppelgangers responded by retracting both their arms, preparing to strike.

The very instant Goku was in front of them, their fists were already coming right at him.

Anticipating that, Goku quickly twisted his ankle, changing the direction of his momentum as he swung himself towards the nearby walls, resulting in the doppelgangers' attack to miss entirely.

Once Goku had his foot stepping on the cold rough surface of the wall, he immediately pumped both the muscles in his legs, launching himself at them from the side.

The Velvet lookalike, unable to react accordingly to the faunus's spontaneous movement was elbowed by Goku. The hit connected to the Goku clone as well, pinning them against the wall.

The moment Goku was back on the ground, the monkey faunus gave the two a swift roundhouse kick, putting everything he got into it to throw them away as far as possible.

The two doppelgangers were flung so hard that Goku assumed they must have landed on the room ahead.

Goku turned towards his training partner, "I'm leaving the rest to you Velvet!"

Velvet nodded in understanding but suddenly yelled, "Goku, behind you!"

Heeding her words, Goku backflipped over the Roman and Cardin copies, barely dodging their combined tackles that would have certainly put the faunus in a pinch.

Not wanting to find out what would happen if he continued to stay, Goku quickly ran as fast as he could, until he was out of sight for Velvet and the others.

The doppelgangers were about to give chase but turned around immediately as the sound of a footstep echoed throughout the hall.

Under the twos' cold hard stares, Velvet almost felt like backing away since this was one of the few times that she would be relying on herself. No Coco, no Goku, no one was going to help her in this situation but she pressed that fear down as she engaged combat with the doppelgangers.

* * *

As soon as Goku arrived at the scene, he was immediately attacked by the two doppelgangers diving from above.

Luckily, the monkey faunus back stepped away in the nick of time before the Grimm' surprise attack hit him.

"Man, you guys are really weird," Goku commented, starting to notice that every movement they took were always in sync.

Their hollowed eyes merely stared back at the faunus before rushing in once again.

Just before their arms strike him once again, Goku bended right under their jabs and gave the two an upper kick as he backflipped in place, resulting in both the Grimm being sent flying up in the air.

Goku followed up by immediately jumping towards the two, preparing an attack of his own.

Eerily snapping their necks to face the faunus and before Goku could do anything, both their right and left arms respectively started melding, breaking down to form a crescent blade.

The blade was steel black, it had a sharpness to it that seemed like it was capable of cutting anything that was on its path.

The doppelgangers slashed in mid-air, crossing each other's attack to form a giant X-shaped energy wave.

Goku was left helpless, having no way of maneuvering himself out of it in mid-air. The attack hit the martial artist dead right in the center, spiraling him downwards.

The faunus now lied on the ground in the crater that was formed just now, pieces of his clothes ripped from the impact.

"They're really strong. They're not like any Grimm I ever fought before, not even that Saugris thing was this strong," Goku knew this was a dire situation but he couldn't contain the biggest grin on his face right now, even with the pain starting to catch up to him.

The Grimm started charging towards the faunus the moment their feet were in contact with the ground, their blade still ever prevalent.

Aware of the incoming threat, Goku got back up as he bended both his legs, pulling them as far apart from each other as his body allowed. At the same time, he pulled both his arms inwardly, his hands curling into fists.

Without warning, the faunus was slashed in half by the twos' blade. However, it was but just a mere image as it evaporated into a mirage. The two doppelgangers stood still once again, waiting for the faunus's next move.

Out of thin air, various afterimages of Goku were formed in a circle around the Grimm, one was laughing, one was sticking out his tongue, one was even was trying to provoke them. The afterimages all served one purpose, to distract them from the real Son Goku.

On the other side of the room, a white dust crystal was held in Goku's right hand, he concentrated on it as quickly as possible because he had the distinct feeling that they weren't fooled by the afterimages.

The crystal in Goku's right hand disappeared into thin air once Goku opened his palm, revealing nothing but an intense whitish aura around it, Goku's clothes as well as his hair swerving due to the force of the wind generated from his right hand.

As if awaken from slumber, the Grimm finally moved as they headed straight towards the martial artist, ignoring the multiple afterimages entirely.

They were not the only ones as Goku was also dashing towards them, his right arm preparing to strike.

As the two sides got nearer and nearer, the doppelgangers changed their direction, leaving Goku in confusion as the two split apart from each other.

Goku stood still, observing their every movement, preparing to counterattack at any given moment.

Using the wall on each side as footing, the two doppelgangers pounced at the faunus with intense speed, their free hands morphing once again. Only this time, their hands were expanding at an incredible rate, until it was big enough to occupy the height of the room.

Goku had no choice but to move forward, narrowly avoiding from being flatten.

As the two hands slapped on one another, the Grimm weren't done just yet, morphing their hands back to normal while attacking the martial artist with their blades.

Goku, unable to retaliate, only dodged to the best of his abilities as the wind surrounding his fist was only good for one shot and the faunus was not certainly not going to waste it.

Dodging the blades swung left and right, Goku kicked the Velvet clone away the moment the opportunity was opened to him.

For some odd reason, after the martial did as such, the Goku Grimm stopped moving, as if it could not move without any sort of order given to it. Not losing this opportunity, Goku punched it right in the stomach. There was no reaction at first, but the wind suddenly gushed out as it instant pierce through its stomach, cutting it in half as a gigantic pressure of wind spread across the room.

Once the wind subsided, Goku stared down at the remaining pieces of the Grimm. It was weird seeing an exact copy of him in a state like this, he hoped that whatever he faced in the future, it wouldn't get so dire.

He supposed he should deal with the Velvet one now that his copy was gone. However, Goku suddenly realized that the body had not dissipated yet. That's what should have occurred every time a Grimm was dealt with.

Instinctively, the faunus backed away. He had a gut feeling that there was something up about this whole situation.

Taking a side glance, it seemed that the other doppelganger had not moved from the spot where he kicked it earlier. This was already the second time, he really needed to figure out what was going on.

Before he had time however, the pieces of the doppelganger that fell just now were suddenly moving on its own, causing Goku to stay on high alert.

Goku saw it all with his own two eyes.

He witnessed how the Grimm pieced itself together from the leftovers that were on the floors moments ago. The upper body suddenly had moving black tentacles coming out of it. The same could be said for the lower part as well. The tentacle then attached with one another, once again forming the mirror image of him.

It was like nothing happened! Goku was momentarily confused by the scene before him but his bewilderment quickly disappeared as he noticed he was positioned between the two, meaning he was in a disadvantageous situation.

The faunus tried to escape but was blocked by a protruding arm that extended beside him. Both the hands of the Grimm connected to each other, situated on both sides of the martial artist.

The hands on each side started melding with each other, until it was nothing but two thick black ropes connected to both doppelgangers.

Goku was unsure what he was supposed to do but quickly understood the situation he was in once the ropes started swinging in a circular motion.

Goku had no choice but to jumped, avoiding the rope as it went passed under him. He had no time to rest as the second one descended upon him as well.

The motion repeated itself, never stopping. But the more Goku jumped, it more apparent it became to him that the two whips were moving even faster. Before long, the faunus knew he wouldn't be able to keep up any more and it wouldn't be long before the faunus could possibly be down...permanently.

Using his tail as a latch, Goku hooked it to one of the whips. He didn't expect the force of it was too much for him to handle until it dragged him along as he clung to it as tightly as he could while the whips continued to rotate.

Goku was already feeling the dizziness settling in as the whips accelerated even further.

Having enough of being flung around like a ragdoll, he stomped on the whip his tail was hooked on hard, the whip now grounded to the floor.

Goku didn't forget the other one either as he lifted both his arms, grabbing it firmly, effectively stopping the whip from crushing him.

The faunus was struggling to even hold both of them in place. Before long, he was sure they would escape out of his grasps.

Before that could happen, Goku thought up the only idea he knew how to for getting out of this situation.

Dragging the whip down until it was at the faunus's eye level, he bit the whip with every ounce his strength could provide.

There were no screams of pain or any ounce of emotion, the only indication that it worked in Goku's eyes were the fact that the whip he was chewing was squirming, trying to escape from the faunus's bite..

Fortunately this went all too well for the martial artist.

Goku immediately let go as he jumped over his own double, giving it a good kick before landing, sending it flying towards its fellow ally.

With the two momentarily occupied, the faunus decided to jump on one of the pillars that were hanging on the wall.

Sitting down, Goku pulled his hands across his chest, trying to think. He needed the rest anyway considering he just exhausted quite a bit of his reserves.

The faunus was recollecting back to the fight earlier and noticed a few things.

First off, the obvious one was that the two always moved in sync. If one was temporarily out of the fight, the other would not move or respond no matter what.

Second, they can transform parts of their body. He didn't know if they could do it with anywhere else aside from their arms but he couldn't discard the possibility.

Third, they can regenerate. Even when he slashed one of them in half, they would just pop right back up like nothing occurred.

Despite rattling his brain, Goku couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. He couldn't think of anything that could possibly finish this fight once and for all.

Goku took a glance at the Grimm, the two clones were unmoving as ever, it was like they were waiting for something to happen in order to act.

Well, it was enough rest he supposed.

This time however, Goku wasn't planning on fighting them head-on.

"Hey you two! What are you waiting for? Don't you want to fight?" Goku called out, his voice echoing throughout the entire room.

Like a switch that had been flipped, the two instantly move towards the martial artist. The two extended both of their arms, puncturing the pillar Goku was standing on with holes.

Fortunately for Goku, he had already escaped and was jumping from one pillar to another, with the two in tow trying to catch up.

Having avoided one of their attacks and continued doing so, Goku's thoughts went back to Velvet, worried for her and the others. He sincerely hoped she was in a better situation than he was at the moment.

* * *

The situation right now was looking grim. To one Cardin Winchester, there was no chance for them to win, not one bit.

Cardin was having such thoughts because the scene because the scene before didn't exactly inspire…hope.

The fight was one sided, it was as simple as that.

Velvet was struggling, having difficulty to even keep up, let alone retaliate as she was being assaulted and barraged by a multitude of kicks and punches.

Whenever she blocked one hit, another comes from the other doppelganger. If she blocked both at the same time, in no time flat their combined strength would overcome hers.

There was also another matter that was dragging her down.

She was scared.

It wasn't because she was fighting the Grimm. She had experience with them multiple of times already.

No, there was something else holding her back. She had this indescribable feeling when she was fighting the two copies. Perhaps it was because the two she was fighting was the splitting images of Roman Torchwick and Cardin Winchester.

If it was anyone else, she was sure she could put more into the fight but that wasn't the case here.

The infamous thief was someone who had quite openly shown his distaste of faunus and she didn't hate him even with his nature. Her senses was telling her that Roman was not to be trusted, no matter what and looked what that got her, dragging Goku in the current mess they were in.

Another reason might be because she was facing Cardin. The person who had an even bigger distaste for faunus than Roman himself. He himself had tried to hurt her once. While the incident didn't result in anything major, it certainly escalated the distaste of faunus from Cardin. This very emotion was what caused Cardin to have such an outrage on the both of them.

Deep down, Velvet realized.

It wasn't because they were human nor was it because they were taking the appearance of Roman and Cardin that she was unable to fight back. No, she couldn't retaliate because when it boiled down to it, it was all her fault.

It was her fault that she agreed and allowed Goku to bring Roman here in the first place. She could have easily convinced the martial artist to give up on the idea.

It was also her fault that she couldn't stop whatever plan Roman and Cardin were up to.

It was just a series of mistakes that she could have easily remedied or better yet, prevented. But now...now...

"ARRGGHH!" Velvet cried out in pain as the Grimm kicked her in the head from both sides.

She fell down on the ground, no longer moving.

It was so sudden. Not only was she unable to protect herself, she was now feeling the immense pain that was permeating across her entire being. Her body bruised, blood dripping from her forehead, staining the floor.

But worse of all, worse of all was...she broke her promise once again. She had disappointed someone again, it didn't matter who it was, Coco...Goku...it was the same. It only proved how useless and helpless she was.

She cried.

Tears streamed through her cheeks, landing on the cold surface of the floor. It wouldn't stop, she could only continue to do so, helpless of the foes that were standing above her.

All she could do now was silently wait for her demise. She stopped her tears and closed her eyes, perhaps this was the only way she could redeem herself in front of their eyes.

However, it never came.

Opening her eyes once again, she noticed the Grimm were only standing still, not doing anything of sorts. They could easily end her right now but they haven't yet. The bunny faunus couldn't tell if it was a blessing or a mockery.

Despite the nauseating headache he was having, Roman was quite perplexed.

Why hadn't the Grimm ended her yet?

It was a valid question. The Grimm were wild and cruel to humans and faunus alike, yet these very same beings were not doing what nature dictated.

Perhaps there was some kind of specific behaviour that these Grimm possess.

What was it he had no clue.

He wanted to leave as soon as humanly possible but there no means of escape with the doppelgangers' presence here, ever cold and dominating.

Considering that his current protector was now down on the floor and Spike was fighting off the other two, his best option right now was...

"Hey you… idiot. Why aren't you doing anything?"

Cardin turned away from the fight and faced Roman, who was right beside him, "What was that?"

Before Roman could open his mouth once again, he was interrupted by two arms flying right passed them.

The two glanced to the source of the attack, instantly recognizing that their very own clones were going after them now.

It was over.

It was impossible for them to survive this. He was injured and dumbo himself wasn't competent enough. When he said last hope, he was thinking more in lines of a sneak attack than a direct confrontation.

Their own doppelgangers were about to run towards their original counterparts but fell down by a sudden tug in their legs.

Cardin widen his eyes in astonishment. How? How could she possibly still be moving?

The one who stopped them was none other than Velvet Scarlatina herself, she was grabbing the Grimm by their legs, holding them back from going after the two. Although she was still having many self-doubts of herself, she was not about to let anything happen to the two, even if it cost her life.

It hurt, it hurt so much she wanted to just let go and be done with it but she couldn't. After studying so long to be a huntress, admiring her leader, her teammates from the very beginning and Goku... the one who even took the time to train with her…

That's why...

That's why she wasn't out for the count just yet.

"You see now boyo. This is why you're pathetic. I mean, I don't have any sense for helping others sure, but you? You would rather die and hang on to that measly pride of yours! Look at her, she's protecting scum like us right now!" Roman pointed at the faunus, trying to make Cardin see the point.

Velvet felt an even bigger tug than before as the two doppelgangers started moving, trying even harder to break free from her grasp.

Cardin was angry, furious even as he grabbed the thief by the collar of Roman's shirt, easily holding the thief in mid-air, "Oh yeah? What do you know? Why should I even bother helping?"

Despite the pain, Roman noticed that Cardin's hand was shaking incessantly. It certainly wasn't shaking in anger but it something else.

The thief let out a cocky smile, only serving to further infuriate the bully.

"Oh, I get it now. This little charade of yours, it's all fake."

As if caught in the act, Cardin let go of his hold of the thief. Unfortunately for the young man, Roman wasn't done with him and continued on, "Ooh, I'm actually hitting somewhere. Then let me say this, in reality, you're confused, scared, not knowing what to do but just like a frighten child, you lash it out at the world."

That was it.

"You son of a—"

However, his sentence was cut off by a pleading voice.

"Please run away!"

Cardin turned around to the source of the voice, refusing to believe what he just heard.

Somehow, Velvet was still capable of holding their doppelgangers down, even when it seemed like she could break any time.

"Please! You two have to escape! Just leave me here!" Velvet cried out once again, trying to plead for the twos' safety.

Cardin couldn't understand it. Why would she, a faunus that he even picked on before wanted to save him? Not a moment ago, he was even planning on trapping the two. It was incomprehensible.

Having glanced at her situation, the thief once again faced the Winchester.

"Now what's your choice boy?"

"What do you gain out of this thief?" Cardin asked, wanting to know the thief's motivation behind this little 'counseling' of his.

"Does it matter? Let's see your answer now. Are you really just going to leave like this?"

Cardin stayed silent for a bit, the Grimm following as well. Nothing but quietness enveloped the area. The bully was contemplating on the matter. He hated those damn faunus so why was he hesitating? It should be easy to just ignore the thief and walk out of here, leaving them to die…but he couldn't do that.

He couldn't understand it either. Just because they were nice to him for one day, that's why he was hesitating? They were faunus, the lowest of lowest…at least, they weren't even considered people in his eyes, that's what he thought for so many years.

It suddenly clicked to him.

Slowly, Cardin walked towards the Grimm that were still struggling on the ground and placed his mace behind his shoulders as he ducked down to the Grimm's level.

"I AM CARDIN WINCHESTER AND NO FILTHY GRIMM IS GOING TO TAKE ON MY APPEARANCE!" having said his piece, Cardin stood up once again and winded up his mace.

"Ah!" Velvet cried out, finally losing strength as the two Grimm was freed from her grasp, still persistent in attacking their prey.

Anticipating such a thing, Cardin merely swung his mace from the right, smacking the two Grimm against the wall as the blow planted them within the wall.

"Can you still stand?"

Velvet was speechless. Did Cardin actually help her? No, that wasn't important right now. She was just glad that he was willing to be an ally in this situation.

Velvet nodded her head. She couldn't actually think clearly due to the blood loss but she could certainly still move.

"You? Shitty thief?"

"Is that a way to treat your counselor?" Roman quipped. Truth be told, he didn't know that would actually work. He didn't even understand why he gave a speech like that to a snot-nosed brat.

Bah. Perhaps he was going soft from those stupid beasts' innocence and naivety, something he was sure he discarded a long time ago…

"Time to beat up these fakers!" Cardin was about to pull out his mace once again and pound them until they were dead but was stopped by Roman, who had other plans.

"How about instead, we find Spike and regroup. Perhaps he found something useful about these imperfect copies that we can perhaps use to our advantage? These things aren't going to stay there forever you know?" Roman rationalized, staring at his own copy whose head was currently stuck. It was a surreal feeling for sure.

Cardin didn't want to admit it but the thief had a point. Even that...monkey had helped him before and he hated to admit it but he wouldn't last a minute against one of the clones, let alone two. Not like he was going to act friendly with them after so long, it's situations like these he realised what being an huntsman entailed. He needed to be professional at all times and not let loose of his rage. No, it was absolutely necessary.

"Fine. Don't drag me down," he didn't need to start liking them or anything, just tolerate them.

Having decided their course of action, the three ran as fast as they could with their battered bodies to the one person that brought them here in the first place.

While they were running, cracking sounds could be heard enveloping the area they were in.

* * *

Goku was currently dodging the Grimm' barrage of punches, the faunus doing his best to stand his ground. This was his last stand quite frankly, seeing as there were no places for him to recover his stamina anymore.

It was evident by the broken pillars scattered around the room, some of them even in pieces that resting was not an option on the table.

"Man, you guys don't let up, do you?"

The only response the Grimm gave were their continued assault on the martial artist.

Ducking under, Goku swept both of their legs, tripping them in the process. He wasn't done yet as he flipped one of the pillars on the ground with his left leg, spinning as it got lifted up in the air.

Taking a deep breathe, Goku jumped until he was at the same level as the pillar and kicked it with precision, burying his opponents with it.

Once landed on the ground, Goku didn't turn away, for he continued to observe the rubble before him. He wasn't convinced the Grimm would be done in just like that.

"Goku!"

The martial artist turned to the direction the voice was coming from, he was then greeted by the sight of Velvet and the others.

"Hey guys. What's the matter?"

"It's—"

He immediately got worried, noticing the various wounds that was especially apparent on Velvet.

"What happened out there? You look really beat up, guess we'll have to finish mine quick if you guys are done with yours."

"No, that's..."

Having sick of the pace of the conversation, Cardin quickly intervened.

"That's not it. We came here because we can't beat those pale imitations."

"Seriously? Guess you guys are having trouble too huh?"

"That's why we came here Spike. How about we trade what we know and maybe we'll find a way to end this. It's quite repugnant to see something like that to have my brilliant beauty such as moi," the thief said proudly, while Cardin was visibly disgusted.

"We better hurry though. I don't know how long that pillar is gonna hold them," Goku explained, pointing to the scene beside him.

"I see...Ours are not going to stay there forever either so let's make this quick," Roman replied.

The four quickly ran down what they knew, each giving their own ideas. All except for Cardin that was, he honestly had nothing to add, it was better for him this way. This way, he could take lookout.

"Interesting...You killed one of them and they just stood right back up," Roman said curiously, stroking his chin.

"Tch, they're here," Cardin alerted the three, their conversation now cut short.

Two figures stepped out of the shadows the three came from. As expected, they were the clones. That wasn't all however as the rubble beside Goku suddenly erupted as outstretched arm charged towards the martial artist.

Narrowly dodging the attack, Goku quickly instructed, "Go hide! I'll stall them."

While the martial artist was distracted with his own and Velvet's clone, he was unaware of the other two charging towards him as they were attracted by Goku's commanding voice.

However, they were stopped before they could ever get to the faunus for Cardin blocking the two doppelgangers in their way, surprising Goku as he noticed the scene beside him.

"Like I'm going to follow whatever you say, you damn monkey!" Cardin said, trying to hold the Grimm off.

Goku was bewildered but it quickly turned into gratefulness, a small grin plastered on his face.

"You're coming with me little bunny," Roman commanded, running while pulling her rm.

"Why—"

"Because we're the only one who can think of anything, as much as it pains me to say but I need your help."

Velvet struggled, trying to break free, "No! I have to—"

"You should probably help him Velvet!"

That certainly stopped her from whatever she was attempting just now.

"But Goku. I can still help—"

"We'll be fine. If anyone can figure this complicated stuff out, it's you."

Velvet stayed silent. Oh how she wanted to tell him he was wrong for putting his trust in her, that it was a mistake. The least she could do was support him in the fight.

Luckily or unluckily for her, she didn't get to as Roman dragged her far away from the battle.

Hearing the sounds of footsteps, Goku and Velvet clone were about to give chase to the injured but was stopped in their track by a certain monkey faunus blocking their way.

"Hehe. Don't forget about me now, I still really want to fight!" Goku shouted, punching the one of them in the face.

* * *

Situated as far away from the battle as the space of the room allowed, the two sat down, both their backs leaning against the wall.

"Alright, now they we're all comfy or as comfy as we can get. Let's think about a plan on how to deal with them shall we little bunny?" Roman waited for a response but only silence greeted him.

He was more than a little irritated.

"Are you seriously still hung up on earlier? Listen, you can settle your problems later but right now me, you and those two idiots need to survive this!"

Velvet gulped. The thief was right, this was no time for her to dwell on the past. She needed to focus on the now.

"Apologies. Let's get to it then, we need to first focus on their supposed immortality. Why don't they dissipate into nothingness like other Grimm?"

"Hmm..." Roman pondered off, it would certainly be troubling if a grimm happened to actually have immortality.

"I have a theory. It might be a bit of a stretch but I believe it's because all four of our doppelgangers are all one Grimm."

"Interesting. So you're saying that's the reason why Spike couldn't finish one of them off, it's because—"

"We need to destroy them all at the same time."

"Not a bad plan…but it's useless if there's no way to do so," Roman argued.

Once again, he was right. Trying to destroy them was hard enough but all four at the same time? Perhaps changing her way of thinking would help, maybe...

"Perhaps we should put that idea on hold for now. I think we should think about our second question, why exactly do they stop at the most strangest of moments?" It was just strange, they had the perfect moment to end her but didn't.

"Beats me. It's not like these things are mechanical or something."

"Maybe… but there must be a pattern of some sort to their peculiar movement," Velvet thought back to Goku's words, her own experience and tried to connect the dots.

It hit her.

"Roman, every time they were still...was everything silent at the moment?"

"Now that you mention it...are you implying what I think you're going to say?"

Velvet nodded her head in agreement as she continued on, "I believe they move by sound. It would explain a lot actually."

Roman agreed with the faunus, for the most part, "Except I think those creeps do have eyes, they just can't see very well in the dark, maybe even worse than us humans."

"Plausible. Now that we know how they move, perhaps there's a way to finish this fight."

"A trap," the thief stated simply, which got Velvet's attention.

"A trap? How exactly does that—"

"Now now little bunny, you've done your part. Just leave that little detail to the most infamous thief of Vale. Because right now, I think those two might need your assistance," the thief pointed towards the ensuing battle.

Velvet did as such and after witnessing the scene before her, she was extremely worried for the two.

* * *

Cardin was certainly hanging, just barely enough. Admittedly, he only lasted this long until now was thanks to that annoying faunus. Whenever it looked like he was about to get off, the faunus was able to intervene and save him every time. It was irritating but he had to admit it, he was grateful, not that he'll say it out loud.

The four clones were now surrounding the two who had their backs leaning against each other.

"You have any bright ideas?" Cardin asked rudely, his body hunching slightly.

"Hehe, maybe," Goku said with a tint of excitement in his voice.

"Then get to it," Cardin hurried, he didn't know how much longer he could last, his arms were aching all over, even lifting his them was difficult at this point.

"Gotta wait for them to take the first move," Goku stated simply.

In a split second, the four doppelgangers all rushed in at the same time.

"Swing me as hard as you can Cardin!" Goku yelled out as his tail grabbed on to Cardin's mace.

Getting the message, Cardin did just that.

Before the Grimm could get into Cardin's breathing space, they were forcefully flung away as Goku's kick came into their path.

Once they were all piled on the ground, Goku threw himself upward. Using the ceiling as a footing, Goku jumped down towards the Grimm, yelling at the top of his lungs, his right hand cupped into a fist.

The Roman and Cardin doppelgangers jumped, meeting the faunus in mid-air as their respective hand connected to each other, transforming into a steel black rectangular shield.

The other two however, rushed off towards the now immobile Cardin.

Cardin was breathing heavily due to earlier, he didn't have the stamina to retaliate back as he stood there, unable to do anything while the grimm only got closer and closer. His eyes widen as both the Grimm' arms suddenly enlarged itself as it also lengthen itself, their opened hands wide enough to grab him and crush him easily.

Goku was well aware of Cardin's situation, the gears in his head turning for his next course of action. Before long, his fist collided with the shield, a clanging sound reverberated across the gigantic room.

Instead of trying to break through the shield, he used it as leverage to jump towards Cardin, outstretching his left arm as he did so to try and reach for Cardin before their opponents could.

Two humongous hands were now right in front of him. The bully braced himself, shutting his eyes as he gripped on to his mace tightly.

He felt a sudden push from his left shoulder as he fell to the ground. Cardin quickly opened his eyes, wanting to know what just happened.

Goku was being held by the two gigantic hands, the Grimm trying to squeeze the life out of him, the faunus coughing up blood as a result. Despite that, Goku hadn't lost out hope just yet, his lips still curving upwards.

Cardin was annoyed, no, angered that the stinking faunus...saved him again and the idiot was still smiling, at him of all people.

"You..."

"Hehe. Guess I got caught huh?" The faunus said cheerfully before another two set of hands came from above and below, covering the faunus entirely.

Now trapped, Goku used every ounce in strength he had in each part of his antomy as he held on. He didn't know how long he could possibly last but he sure wasn't going to get crushed today.

* * *

Velvet suddenly stood up, aware of the gravity of the situation. She took a step forward but hesitated at the last second, knowing that her help was still needed here.

Her thoughts were disrupted by the sudden voice of a particular thief, "What are you waiting for? Didn't I tell you already, your usefulness is done here already. Go help Spike and the idiot before we all die in this backwards dump."

"But—"

"How many times do I have to say this? An amateur like you can't possibly help. Also, tell the idiot to come over here, I have a job for him," he had planned for Cardin, oh he had indeed.

Velvet nodded and quickly dashed towards the battle that was ensuing.

"Damn morons. All of them...even me," Roman muttered to no one in particular.

* * *

"ARRRRRHHH!" Cardin screamed out, firing his weapon recklessly as the bullet exploded upon the gigantic hands trapping the faunus.

Alas, it was to no avail.

One of their hands removed itself from the pile and went straight for Cardin as it descended from above, trying to slap the young huntsman in training away.

Prepared, Cardin rolled of the ground, narrowly avoiding the swipe. However, he did not anticipate a second attack. Having no time to react, Cardin was instantly swept away as he continued rolling off the ground, until he was now situated beside a familiar thief.

"Get up. Can't believe I walked just for this," Roman complained as he stood above Cardin.

* * *

With one of the obstacles gone, the separated hands were about to huddle back and continued their pressure on the martial artist.

Before they could, they were instantly cut down.

The doppelgangers were now alert of the new threat, though they were unaware of its location.

Once again, one of their hands was cut down once again, this time the Grimm fully knowing who the perpetrator was.

Velvet was holding on to a holographic version of Crescent Rose, she wasted no time as she jumping from wall to wall, whittling it down bit by bit.

Countering the threat, several of their hands started chasing after her.

Goku felt the pressure on him suddenly lessened. Something must have happened outside, not letting go of this opportunity, Goku tighten his upper body, until it was enough for him to push them apart, freeing him in the process.

Once landed, Goku looked around, trying to access the situation, that was until a familiar voice called out to him.

"Goku...ha...are you alright?"

Goku tried searching for her but she was nowhere to be found, until he looked behind his back and saw Velvet avoiding the very hands that were squeezing him just now.

"Yeah...try and hang in there for a bit longer," after saying that, a pair of hairs suddenly came flying right towards him.

Goku jumped just before he got hit and started running on top of them, his target: himself.

The Grimm quickly retracted its arms back, with Goku picking up the pace, trying to out speed it.

Before long, Goku was now instances away from the copy. Goku quickly lifted up his legs, elbowing it in the face, the Grimm falling down due to the impact.

But Goku wasn't done just yet, the martial artist proceeded to punched the Cardin copy in the gut, rendering it lifeless as it keel over.

The next one was the Grimm that looked like Roman, Goku unleashed a fearsome yell as he started punching it multiples times in the face.

"ATATATATATATAA!"

Knowing it was enough, Goku ended his assault as he dropkicked the Grimm to the ground, the floor breaking under pressure.

There was only one left.

It was a bit further away now that the faunus moved, but there was a certain someone who could finish the job faster than him.

"Velvet! I leave it to you!" Goku yelled out to his training partner.

Despite still being chased, there was a lot of more breathing room than earlier since Goku had taken out three of them.

She ducked under as both the hands flew over each other. She stood still as a bluish light enveloped beside her, materializing a copy of Myrtenaster, a rapier that belonged to Weiss.

Velvet dashed towards her own mirror image, never hesitating as she pierced it in the chest. Assured it was not moving, Velvet retracted it back, the stab leaving a small hole on the Grimm.

"So does this mean it's over?" Goku asked, walking slowly toward his fellow faunus.

Velvet shook her head, "No. From what we theorize, there's only one way to end this. This only gives us some time to rest."

"Oh! Then how do we—" Goku was interrupted as the sound of cracking bones could be heard, the two quickly got into their respective stances and prepared themselves.

Four hollowed eyes were now focused solely on the two faunus.

* * *

"Capiche?" Roman asked, knowing that the bully's understanding was their key to survival.

"Course I do, doesn't mean I'll like it," Cardin turned his head away, his eyes glancing at the fight.

Roman took out two tiny dust crystal from under his shirt, there was a translucent shine to it. Roman placed each of the dust on his respective hands.

Cardin was curious, having not seen this kind of dust before, "What even is that?"

"No time to explain. Just throw the one on my left to Spike and the one on my right to the girl. They'll know the rest once they got ahold of it."

Begrudgingly, Cardin grabbed the crystals from out of his hand and yelled as loud as he could.

"You two! Catch!"

The two faunus were momentarily confused but quickly recovered as they caught the incoming dust crystal.

They immediately knew what it was and turned it around as Roman's voice were being transferred from the crystal while still dodging their enemies' assault simultaneously.

"Spike, I need you to freeze them in place once they're all in one place. Then you leave it those two."

"I need you to pull their attention and bundle them together all nicely so that Spike can freeze them in place. Then you can smash their frozen bits with the idiot here."

The two faunus stared at each other, confirming the message they received just now. The two merely nodded their heads as they split up.

A pair of sword and shield suddenly materialized out of thin air. Wasting no time, Velvet continued running as she hit the shield repeatedly with her sword, making a clanking sound, which attracted the four doppelgangers' attention.

While Velvet was busy dealing with them, Goku quickly took out a dark blue dust crystal out of his pouch, holding it tightly while doing so, his concentration never faltering even for a second.

A few seconds later, an icy aura started surrounding Goku's right hand. Goku could feel the coldness crawling on his skin, he was confident this was enough to freeze all of them in one go. The faunus prepared himself, waiting for Velvet's signal.

On the other hand, Cardin was slowly dragging his body to the direction where Velvet was, his mace skidding the ground, preserving his strength for what was about to occur.

Cornered against the wall, Velvet banged on her shield one last time, causing all four of their lookalikes to pounch on them. She then dropped her weapon, it dissolve into nothingness while Velvet somersaulted over them as they crashed onto the wall.

"Now Goku!"

Goku immediately jumped as high as his legs allowed and descended like a meteor as his fist collided against the Grimm. The resulting impact created multiples spikes made of solid ice, holding them in place.

After that, Goku backflipped back onto the rough floor, with two people standing beside him.

On his right was Cardin, the martial artist could tell huntsman in training was at his limit, evident by the ragged breathing he was exhibiting and the way he was holding his mace. Even so, he could tell Cardin was ready to swing his mace with every ounce that his body could put out.

On his left was Velvet, the bloodstain across her face was still present but the bleeding had long but dried up. On the left of her hand held a hammer, a hammer he had seen that usually belonged to a rambunctious brunette.

The ice began to crack bit by bit, too bad the Grimm would never break out as the two swung their weapons heavily. Their combined strength easily broke the ice into millions of pieces, shards scattering apart as parts of the Grimm were now scattered on the floor.

The three stood there for a while, sweats pouring out of their skin as they waited for any kind of response from the fallen Grimm.

And it did.

The blackened parts of the Grimm suddenly dissolve, even when inside the container made out of ice.

All three let out a heavy sigh of relief, glad that it was finally over. In fact, they were so relief that all strength in their legs failed on them as they fell to the ground.

"You three do know it's not over yet right?" Roman cautioned, slowly walking towards them.

"What are you talking about Roman? We've beaten them already," Goku responded back to the thief, still sprawled on the ground.

Not needing to spell it out for them, Roman simply pointed his right index finger towards the ceiling, rubbles started dropping bit by bit.

"Ah!" Velvet realized, they were indeed not out of the woods yet.

"Best we get out of here quick unless you three want to be buried alive," even the thief himself wasn't confident he could get out in time, with the condition he was in.

"Hehe. We can't move much right now unless...ah, my power pole!" Goku realized, his staff was the only thing fast enough to help them escape in time but it was still in the middle of the room they were in.

The ruins shook as rocks starting falling down more frequently, it was clear to the four that it wasn't going to last for more than a few minutes.

Painfully, the three stood up, their legs trembling as they did so.

A copy of Gambol Shroud appeared beside Velvet as she sprinted towards back into the small pathway.

"Hey Velvet! Where are you going?" Goku called out.

"Getting your staff back!" she yelled, her figure disappearing into the darkness.

It took longer than she had wanted but she made it, she finally arrived at the room where the power pole was placed in the middle of the room.

Twirling the hook, she threw it as precisely as she could. The moment the staff was hook, Velvet pulled it over as the staff started returning to its original length.

Now that the pole was gone, the ruins shook once again, startling her. She still held on to her weapon despite the intensity. Her materialized weapon dissipated the moment Goku's pole fell in her hand.

She turned around and ran back as fast as she could. Once she was out of the tunnel, she quickly threw it back to its original owner as she started running back to the group.

"Thanks Velvet! Alright guys, hang on!"

Everyone grabbed on to the faunus's back, the last one being Velvet.

Once they were all huddled up, Goku positioned the power pole horizontally, making sure that he wouldn't make a mistake.

"Power pole EXTEND!"

The staff started extending itself until the back end of the staff hit a wall, pushing all four of them forward as they clung to it.

They arrived at the area where the path was split into two, Goku shorten it once again and placed it against a nearby wall, he extended it once again, this time having nothing stopping them in their way.

Once they were at the entrance, Goku retracted the power pole and started running, carrying the three as he did so.

"Only a bit more guys!" the faunus comforted, his legs trembling as he took several steps forward.

The three stared at each other for a moment before dropping off from the martial artist and started running as well.

Goku blinked his eyes in confusion, not understanding their intent.

"I can walk by myself," Cardin stated simply.

"Hard to believe it but I agree with the idiot. I am certainly capable of running without help, I am Roman Torchwick after all."

"Yeah...so don't worry about us and let's get out of here together, alright Goku?" Velvet assured him, hoping Goku would understand why they did this.

The faunus's expression changed into admiration for the three as he turned his back and started running up the stairs.

"Alright, let's go then guys!" Goku stopped, waving his hand around.

Velvet smiled brightly at the playful gesture, Goku would be Goku even in situations like these.

* * *

Once the four got out, a rumbling noise could be heard, only to be followed by the trembling of the ground.

Curious, Goku decided to take a look at the ruins but all he saw was a closed off entrance, indicating that there was no way they were ever getting back in there.

"Guess that's that then," Goku, ever carefree as he started lying on the ground.

"Ha...all that for nothing...could've been worse I suppose," muttered the thief.

"Now then, how do you propose we get back? Knowing our condition, an adorable puppy could take us down," when was Neo when he needed her, perhaps he should treat her to some ice cream if he ever got out here, it certainly wasn't going to be today.

"Now you want to stay here quietly you damn thief..." Cardin rebutted, sitting down as he tried to catch his breath.

"Hey, it's not my fault you three stooges let your guard down. It was like taking dust from teenagers trying to play hero. What was I supposed to do? Stand around and be an idiot?"

"Tch. Just shut your yap and let me rest," Cardin complained as he sat on the ground.

"Dumb brat. Still as impolite as ever."

Not butting in to their conversation, Velvet turned to Goku, having wanting to tell him.

Before she could however, the faunus suddenly stood up once again as he dusted his clothes, grabbing the power pole with his right hand as the mrtial artist gave a toothy grin.

"Okay. That's enough rest, let's get back to school guys!"

The two stopped conversing as they stared at the faunus, bewildered.

"Just how much stamina do you have?" even Cardin had to admit, it was unnatural.

"Don't know. Training helps a lot, I certainly can't pull off a kamehameha right now though," Goku explained, stretching his arms.

Cardin said nothing as he removed himself from the very spot he was sitting on.

* * *

The four were now back on the courtyard, the place as empty before they left.

It didn't take long with the help of the power pole but by the time they arrived, it was already night time.

"See ya Cardin. Thanks for the help! You should probably get that thing looked at though," Goku pointed out.

"Uhm. Thank you very much," Velvet said nervously.

"Tch. You better keep an eye on that," Cardin warned, pointing towards the large sack beside them.

"Don't worry. He probably won't do that again, I think," Goku tried to assure unconvincingly.

"Fine. Just don't get in my way next semester got it Son...You too Scarlatina."

With that, Cardin was off as he went back to his room. There was no way he was gonna go to the infirmary, he didn't want anyone to know of these scuffles and bruises he received.

Goku was glad. At least Cardin didn't look like he held a grudge anymore.

"Goku, I'm going back to my room first so if you don't mind, please meet me at our usual training area after you take Roman back, I...have something to tell you," her voice straining a bit as Velvet talked.

"You sure?" Goku asked, trying to confirm.

Velvet merely nodded her head as she slowly walked in the other direction, the faunus puzzled by her sudden strange behaviour.

* * *

"Home sweet—who am I kidding, this place is still as insufferable as ever," the thief whined as he got out of the sack.

The two were now back in Roman's holding place. The room was as wide and empty as ever.

The thief's hands were cuffed as Goku tried to apologize, "Sorry Roman, can't have you escaping again, or else Glynda would have my head," the faunus hushed at the last part, trying to be cautious even if the person in question was nowhere near here.

Roman only sat down at the corner, ushering the faunus to do so as well.

Once Goku joined him, the thief started talking, "You know Spike. Despite my complaining and quips these past few days...I have to admit, it was kinda enjoyable. Granted, I did try to escape but… you know what I mean right?"

"Are you trying to escape again?" Goku asked disapprovingly.

Roman let out a chuckle, "Maybe I will. You never know."

Silence took over as the two just quietly sat there. Minutes passed by, until Roman spoke out loud once again.

"Hey Spike. Let me give you an advice because I'm so gracious, be careful on what you choose got it? You just might end up in the wrong side of the world one day..." Roman said serenely, as if he was reminiscing the past.

"Is that how you end up becoming a thief?" it would certainly explain some things about Roman to him.

"Pfft. You kidding? I did it because I want to, as simple as that," Roman scoffed at that idea the faunus had.

"Oh...guess I'll be going then. Velvet wanted to see me after this, I'm kinda getting worried too," the faunus then stood up as he walked towards the door.

After the faunus was gone, Roman sighed as he stared blankly at the cubicle room. It would be really nice if he could smoke a cigarette right now, it really would...

* * *

Velvet waited, standing near the fields as she fiddled with her camera. Despite feeling nervous, she couldn't help but analyse the ancient text of the picture she took.

No, it was perhaps just a distraction from making her panicking right now. She gazed at the moon, noticing that tonight was beautiful, the blowing wind, the rustling leaves, she could even see glimpse of growth for the vegetable Goku was farming...

Bandages were now wrapped around her forehead, it wasn't exactly easy trying to do so earlier when she felt like she could fall down at any given moment.

Velvet turned around once she heard the sound of footsteps approaching and just as expected, Goku had arrived.

"Yo!" Goku greeted.

"Hey," Velvet softly replied back.

"So what did you want to talk about?" the faunus said, now standing right beside her.

Velvet took a heavy breath, knowing what she was about to tell him, she had to steel herself.

"Goku...do you ever feel like you're useless?" it had to come anyway, it might as be now.

"Sure there is! Like cooking, trying to clean the house and when I tried to read a book, it was so hard to understand anything..." those were the times when he felt he didn't know anything at all.

Velvet shook her head, "No. It's not that...It's like when you feel like you can't be as good as anyone else, that you'll never be useful even when you try your best...that you're just a simple imitation in the end, that no matter what you'll do, you can be easily replaced," she had this mentality since long ago, it was only until recently that she started to realize it.

"But you're not useless. I mean, look at earlier. Without ya, I doubt we would have survived," he was sure of that, he certainly wouldn't have survived all past that alone.

"No. I just gave some vague descriptions, I'm sure Roman would have figured it out...perhaps he even allowed me to..." yeah, that sounded right, an experienced person in the darker side of society would certainly have expertise in situations like those.

"You're thinking too much Velvet. No way Roman that's smart, he got caught by me and Ruby after all."

"..."

Goku decided to try another approach totry and comfort his training partner, "Velvet is still Velvet. It doesn't matter if you're like someone else, you're still you."

"It's just...I'm nothing like everyone else at Beacon. I can't be like them, I can't be as dependable as them, it's frustrating knowing I just steal from everyone around me."

Goku was about to open his mouth again but stopped as Velvet cried, tears dripping out while she tried to covered them up, the tears never stopped. In fact, they only increased.

The martial artist had no idea what he was supposed to do here. It was a first for him. Sure, during his younger days staying with Yang and Ruby, he sometimes felt like a stranger. There were those off days for the two but they never spoke about it to him.

So Goku did what he thought was best.

He waited.

It was so different from everything else he encountered. He had always thought learning techniques was really fun to him, so he never had the thought that he was just stealing techniques from someone. Sure, he got the Kamehameha from his grandpa but his grandpa was the one who taught him that. He also learned other things during his journey but the people he learned from never had any ill intentions.

After a while, Velvet finally stopped bawling her eyes as she tried to wipe away the tears.

"Thank you Goku… for listening."

"No problem. So you feel all better?"

"A bit, having to let loose is nice but I don't think I can ever overcome this...what do you think I should do?"

Goku thought long and hard about it. Even with his inept social skills, he could tell he shouldn't say anything reckless. However hard he tried though, he only arrived to one answer.

"Sorry Velvet...but I don't know. This is really giving me a headache," Goku said, scratching his head in frustration.

"It's fine Goku, I'm happy you actually cared so much about my worries," it was comforting, despite the internal turmoil she was having right now. But it was as she expected, perhaps she could only reach the answer by herself...and that was what she exactly feared, knowing what kind of person she was.

"I'll be going back then...don't worry, I'll still be training with you tomorrow and if you can, please act as if nothing happened tonight."

"Wait," Goku stopped her from leaving as he had at least one thing to say.

"I still don't know the answer…but I know one thing. You shouldn't worry about it so much, I know you'll solve it one day because you're Velvet after all," Goku said confidently.

Velvet was taken aback, stunned momentarily. To think Goku was still so...confident despite what he heard just now.

A small smile formed on her lips as she spoke, "Thank you Goku." with those last words, she left the farming area, a bit less worried than she thought she would be.

Now that no one was here, Goku sat on the fields, closing his eyes, feeling the wind breeze of the cold night. He was thinking back to the events these past several days, it was certainly a wild ride.

With that thought in mind, he positioned himself in his usual fighting stance and started training as he released a series and kicks into the air.

His latest adventure proved to him that he still had a long way to go. It was nice to slow down sometimes but he needed to get back on track, he was determined to get even stronger after the recent fight.

After all, it wouldn't be long before semester comes again, right?


	21. Mess

Finally, the semester holidays had ended, the students were all back at Beacon from the holidays. Many had experiences over their days of relaxation that they wanted to share with their fellow friends.

The cafeteria was bustling with life, ranging from students lining to get their food, chatting to each other and just generally having a fun time. This was no exception for the fellow members of team RWBY and JNPR, the two teams seating adjacent to one another.

"Oh, I can't wait to tell you guys what we did when we were gone," one Ruby Rose squealed, excitement oozing off her.

"For the last forty seven times, we know Ruby," Weiss Schnee replied, her eyes lazily trying to focus on the young Rose.

"Oh yeah? Then feast your eyes on this," Ruby said smugly as she dropped a thick notebook out of nowhere, amply titled 'Best Day Ever Activities'.

"Yes, we know. That's what you did for the entire holiday oh wise leader," Weiss commented sarcastically as she rolled her eyes, having sick of hearing the same thing for many times today. And who could blame her, anyone would.

Ruby stuck out her tongue mischievously before continuing, "My dear important, great sister and kind friends...and Weiss."

"Hey. Now that is just going too—" Weiss interjected before the two had a friendly back and forth.

Ignoring the two, Blake kept on studying the book that was placed before her, her eyes never leaving from them. That was until a certain blonde brawler came into the picture and stopped her from what she was doing.

"What cha' doing?" Yang asked before a pea was thrown into her way as she caught it with her mouth, pulling a thumbs up toward Nora who threw it in the first place.

"It's...just notes from last semester," Blake said calmly as she closed the book, not wanting to delve into the topic any further.

"You know you can't pull a wool over my eyes, right? I know you're still worried about the White Fang but remember the last time you tried to hide stuff from us?" Yang questioned, her expression completely different from the cheerful one she had.

Blake's eyes widen, like she was caught in the act before her eyes returned to normal.

"Yes...you're right. I'm sorry, I suppose old habits are hard to get rid of."

"It's fine Blakey. We're all in this together after all," Yang consoled as she wrapped her right arm around Blake's neck, making the faunus in disguise feel more than a bit awkward.

"So, what were you doing during the holidays?" Blake enquired, a bit curious of her partner's activities during their break. She heard aplenty of Ruby's but Yang was strangely more...subdued.

"Oh nothing much, splitting heads, destroying property, making Grimm my punching bags, the usual same ol' same ol'."

Except it wasn't just that, she was secretly training during that period of time, she couldn't wait to put it in practice, especially on a certain faunus.

SPLAT!

Everyone nearby turned their attention towards the source of the sound. A plate of pie, before it was perfectly edible, its creamy surface and its meaty center were now spoiled and splattered, most of its content sticking to a very cold heiress's face.

The one who threw it was Nora, who might have executed the action on purpose, her face filled with smug, pumping her right arm with vigor at her throw.

Weiss simply wiped the pie off her face as she uttered one simple sentence, "This means war."

* * *

Outside the cafeteria, there were two individuals walking around, one was Sun and the other a new face to Beacon.

"So we were just running around the city and boom! A pillar of light suddenly shot out of nowhere!" Sun explained, still excited from what he went through that day.

"That sounds cool," an unknown individual said.

That certain teenager walking with Sun was one of his teammates, Neptune Vasilias.

Neptune, now he was a guy who could be described as cool, a stark contrast to Sun's bright attitude. Even his appearance let off as such.

The young teenager had tan skin and light-blue hair. His attire consisted a red jacket over a white shirt, a black necktie underneath it, also sporting a pair of gray jeans as well as black shoes fastened with straps.

To further accentuate his coolness, a pair of goggles was also strapped around his forehead. Not only that, Neptune also wore black fingerless gloves on both his hands.

All in all, Sun considered Neptune a cool person even from their first meeting. Strangely enough, they got along easily, even with their obvious differences. Perhaps the saying opposite attracts wasn't as farfetched as the faunus thought.

"So, please don't blow this for me, especially about the fact she's a faunus. Whoops, that was a secret so you better not tell anyone, got it?"

Neptune simply pinched his fingers together, indicating that he understood.

Thus, the two continued along and set out for the cafeteria.

Originally, they were planning on going there slowly but immediately sprinted as they notice a wave of people running out of the cafeteria, wanting to know what was going on inside.

They both had different reactions to the scene occurring before them. Sun had this wide goofy smile that could make any person with quick temper punch him in the face while Neptune, understandably had a face of concern, looking around the fleeing students.

Well, they could certainly understand the students' reasoning.

There, at the edge of the room lied a castle, a castle that was made entirely out of stacked chairs and tables. Standing on top of it was Nora and at the bottom of it were her teammates, looking like they're prepared for a siege.

"I'm queen of the castle~ I'm queen of the castle~" Nora sang in a happy-go-lucky tune.

On the opposing side was team RWBY, their leader pointing her finger towards their opponents while holding a carton of milk on the other, "A queen? We, the people have suffered long enough and it's time, it's time we realize the queen must be dethroned for all her tyranny! For Justice!"

Ruby crushed the carton in her hand at the last part of her sentence, milk splattering everywhere but she didn't mind...okay, the young Rose minded a little but she needed to continue so she did, it worked just as well as she hoped.

The others cheered on their leader, pumping their hands in the end as they all shouted in agreement.

"Muhahaha! Nobody preaching about justice is ever a good guy!" Nora declared confidently.

Then she jumped down, commanding her teammates as she issued one order, "Off with their heads!"

The war between the two groups began while Sun and Neptune could do nothing but stand there and enjoy the spectacle they were about to be shown.

* * *

"I don't know what to do with you children. On one hand, I should have anticipated this...on the other, I'm worried for the future of huntsmen and huntresses everywhere," Professor Goodwitch declared while she waved her whip, the floating tables and chairs gravitated from the air and back in their original positions.

She glanced at the condition of the cafeteria, a bit satisfied as it was certainly better than before, except for the giant multicoloured stain on the wall. That, she couldn't do anything about.

Glynda sighed, recollecting back to a few moments ago.

It was a complete mess when she arrived. Food scattered everywhere, all the furniture positioned in outlandish ways, the students themselves were completely covered from head to toe.

A part of the roof suddenly tumbled on itself, revealing a man-sized hole as the object fell on the ground like a meteorite, which snapped Glynda back to reality.

The woman saw it was Yang, now back on the ground with seemingly no injuries. The young huntress in training had a gleeful smile on her, apparently not caring about the fall.

Oh, they were not getting away with this, Ozpin or not.

Fate seemed to agree with her as another individual walked in, one she was all too familiar with.

"What the—You kids better have a good explanation for this. I went away to buy ingredients for one minute and this is what happens!" the head chief, Milar yelled out in frustration.

This was certainly someone new that the young huntsmen and huntresses had not been introduced to, all except for Yang that was. Considering Yang was the only one willing to step into the kitchen sometimes, it was natural that the two met.

"Nothing much mama Milar. Just uh...redecorating?" Yang phrased without much thought put into it.

Milar sighed; this was going to be more than it was worth. She turned towards the only reasonable sort of explanation, Glynda.

"Glynda if ya would be so kind to explain..."

"Of course. It's exactly what you think, tomfoolery at its worst but don't worry, I have prepared a fitting punishment for them,"

If they weren't worried before they certainly were now, team RWBY especially. Last time they were let off easy with a simple task but this one, they weren't so sure.

"Hoh...let's hear it then."

Glynda stepped forward, eyeing each and every one of them.

"Children, due to today's incident, you will all be punished accordingly."

Those words were enough to send them all to despair, their happy demeanor gone, now replaced with heads facing downward and hung arms, having lost any semblance of hope.

"You will be split into two groups, the boys are sent to catch fish, raw might I add and the girls will be left here to clean up the mess and prepare an extra meal."

Upon hearing her instructions, Jaune had a question.

"Wait. Why do we need to bring back fish and...uh make food?"

It was a valid question Jaune felt, break time was over and there really wasn't anyone around that would want—

A loud voice cut in, echoing through the cafeteria hall.

"Hey guys! Man, I can't wait for the food. Where did everybody go anyway?" Goku came in, unaware of the events that transpired a few minutes ago.

"That Mr Arc—" pointed Glynda, "—is why you're doing all this. Does that answer your question?"

Confused, Goku interjected into the conversation, "What's going on? What happened here?" Goku turned to Milar, knowing she was the one who usually cooked up his meals.

Milar placed her hand on Goku's shoulder, tightening it, "You see Pike, the food...it's all squashed and spoiled so there's nothing left for you."

Goku could feel his eyes bulged out, it was all so sudden to the faunus. One moment he was training happily and awaiting his daily lunch but now there was an empty hole in his stomach, both literally and metaphorically.

"Don't worry Mr. Son. Team RWBY and JNPR will prepare it soon, just for you."

Judging from the conversation, it was clear to the faunus that it was Ruby and the others were the reason for his lunch's disappearance. He would never hold it against them as much as he might starve, it was just not in his nature.

"You alright Goku? I'm sorry we did that, we didn't know…" Ruby spoke out of concern, apologizing. She was starting to feel a bit guilty, she did have a hand in her brother's lack of…anything edible really.

Goku however put on a brave front as he laughed it off, "Ahaha I'm alright. It's not like I can't just wait until dinner right?"

Just after Goku said as such, a growl bellowed out of his stomach, shocking everyone nearby by just the loudness of the grumbling.

"Perhaps food should indeed be arranged for you after all?" Pyrrha voiced out.

"Nah. I'll be fine," Goku waved it off, which was uncharacteristic for them. They had thought he would just yell out disappointingly at having no food, this was not what they had pegged for his reaction. It was so...normal and untypical of him.

"Seriously Goku. Stop trying to be considerate of us for once, just say you want some food and we'll whip it out for you," it just gave Yang a weird vibe when she saw him like this, the Goku she knew would just be upfront about it.

"Yeah~ it's not like it's much of a problem to us, right Ren?" Nora comforted, now face-to-face with Goku.

"She's right. Considering it's our mess, it's only natural we fix it."

"Thanks guys!" a smile now upon his face, it brought comfort to the others as they never wanted to see Goku like that again.

"Aye, that's nice and all but you boys better get your butts cracking, and you lassies are going to the kitchen later," Milar commanded.

"Wait. Why exactly are we cooking? Why can't some of us go and get the fish with them, wouldn't that be faster?" Weiss asked.

The heiress was all up for cleaning up their own mess but she certainly wasn't in agreement with inefficiency.

Milar turned towards Glynda, directing Weiss's question to Professor Goodwitch.

"If you must know Miss Schnee, it's because you girls simply have no delicacy when it comes to taking care of more...fragile matters," Glynda stated simply, readjusting her glasses back in position as she did so.

However, a certain cat faunus disagreed with the older woman.

"I disagree Professor Goodwitch. Yang here at least knows how to cook," in fact, Blake would dare say she was a great cook considering she had a taste of it once.

She had a hidden agenda herself. She simply wanted to taste the fish cooked by Yang. It wasn't like she was going back to her old ways and steal it or anything. She was sure Goku would be more than charitable to give out just one, and one was more than enough.

"Yeah! She's the one fed Goku all those times...most of the time, dad just helps a bit and Yang does most of the work," Ruby didn't want to to berate her dad or anything considering her love for the man. But she needed to make a point and she needed it to get across Professor Glynda.

"Ah...you two are correct. Then if you don't mind Milar, would you mind taking Miss Xiao Long to Ozpin's office?"

Milar obliged, lifting Yang and placed the young huntress in training upon her right shoulder.

Everyone blinked profusely, not believing what they were seeing.

Yang was the only who was not frozen in place, struggling to break free from Milar's grasp as she pounded on the cafeteria lady's back.

"Come on, let me go mama Milar...jeez! Where are you even taking me?"

"It's not a punishment if it's easy now is it? Miss Xiao Long will be helping with Headmaster Ozpin on the paperwork for this little incident."

"You five lassies better have everything prepared by the time I get back or else I'm choosing the punishment and ya really don't want to know what I have in store for ya all," head cook she may be, but her experience was still much ahead of the young students.

"Alright Ren, Jaune. Let's go fishing, I know a great place!" Goku said excitedly, wrapping both his arms around the two young man.

"Mr. Son. You are not allowed to help in anyway," Glynda warned the faunus with an icy stare.

"Aww...but Glynda. If we don't hurry, I might starve to death~" Goku whined, but a hint of playfulness could be heard from the faunus's tone.

"No means no. Now if you would excuse me, I have business to attend to. Milar, I suppose you have this under control?"

"No worries here. Just have ta pop miss hot and tempered and report to Ozpin right?"

The two adults then went their separate ways, Yang still plopped on their cafeteria lady's shoulder.

"Alright guys follow me," Goku beckoned the two.

"You sure about that Goku? I mean won't you get in trouble?" Jaune asked, not wanting to involve the faunus in their detention.

"Yeah, of course!" his excitement never falling off, absolute in his decision.

Jaune turned to Ren, wanting to know what he thought of it.

Ren merely gave a small smirk, telling Jaune that he was on board with the idea.

"Alright then. Hope we can make good time, see you girls later!" Jaune waved to girls.

Pyrrha happily extended back the same courtesy, same could be said for the others. All except for Weiss that was, she was the only one ignoring the three boys and was concentrating on something else.

With a disappointed sigh, Jaune and the others left the cafeteria hall, leaving only the five girls alone to do the task they were given.

As the doors close and the three young men were outside, they were greeted by the appearance of two individuals.

"Mind if we join in?" Sun asked, posing in a weird position with Neptune as they greeted the three, only confusing Goku and the others.

Jaune looked between Goku and Ren, hoping they knew how to react in this kind of situation.

"Sure!"

It was a fortunate thing that Goku was here instead of just him and Ren.

* * *

With the boys gone, Weiss slapped both her hands, catching all her friends' attention.

"Now that the nuisances are out of the way, we need to decide who cleans the giant mess on the wall and who makes the meal. Any objections?"

Ruby had and she decided to voiced that out by instantly moving into Weiss's breathing space, "Hey that's my job!" Ruby roared straight into the heiress's earshot, pouting after she did so.

Only just recovering, Weiss responded back not with the same intensity Ruby had but with elegance and grace, a tint of smug on the side, "Well Ruby...do you think you have what it takes to organize something as big as this?"

"What are you talking about? There's like only five people here," Nora chimed in loudly.

There was a brief silence after that.

It broke the moment Ruby caught hold of everyone's attention, puffing her chest proudly, "Alright then. Blake and Nora will handle the stain on the wall—" she circled around the painting on the wall with her finger, "—while me, Weiss and Pyrrha will handle the kitchen."

"Just wait a—"

"Now onwards everyone!" Ruby commanded.

Blake and Nora immediately got into gear as they disappeared, presumably to gather cleaning equipment.

"Come on bestie! No time to lose, we gotta cook up whatever we can!" Ruby said, dragging Weiss along with her, Pyrrha already awaiting the two.

Setting up the ingredients, a question suddenly popped up in Pyrrha's mind.

"Not to be rude but do any of you know how to cook? I myself am not a very good cook so to speak..."

"I can make cookies, I think that's about it..." Ruby said, her confidence plummeting as she tapped her fingers repeatedly.

"How about you Weiss?"

Weiss wasn't completely quite back there just yet. She was still a bit hung up on earlier. She had indeed promised to herself that she would be the best teammate to Ruby but wanting to take chances as the leader were far and few between, even if it was a simple matter such as one like this. Still, there was no reason for her to still be so out of it, she should support her leader after all.

"Umm...Weiss? You there?" Ruby asked once again, checking on Weiss's condition.

For good measure, Ruby knocked on the heiress's forehead just before Weiss could respond.

"Oww...what was that for Ruby? And no, unfortunately I do not know how to cook," Weiss answered, tending to her sore wound.

"Oh. Guess we'll have to improvise then. Don't worry, I've seen Yang plenty of times in the kitchen, it can't be that hard right?" Ruby said, rolling up both her sleeves.

Pyrrha merely nodded in enthusiasm while Weiss's left pinky started twitching; perhaps it was a sign to come for the heiress?

* * *

"Lalalalalala~"

It was certainly shaping up to be an interesting day for Blake. First, they had a food war of sorts with team JNPR and now here they were helping one another for a common cause, to survive through detention.

How she wished everything was this easy.

"Hey Blake! Hit me another round~"

Upon hearing Nora's call for assistance, Blake tossed another block of cartridge to the brunette.

Now loaded in her hand, Nora launched the grenade onto the wall, the grenade exploded into a giant puddle of water now spread onto it.

Nora zipped around as she started scrubbing alongside Blake, who was also doing the same thing.

"This thing sure isn't easy to come off...also, sorry about the whole cafeteria thing. It's just when I see good ol' Weiss like that, I just can't help but want to mess her face up so that everyone can have a food fight or something, you know where I'm coming from right right?" truth be told, despite how she acted, Nora did had the slightest bit of worry when she threw that pie towards Weiss, worried that their camaraderie would end just like that and she would be the cause of it.

It was a bit surprising knowing that Nora actually had doubts, anyone would think the opposite with her perky attitude.

"No, it's fine. I had...fun today, it was also nice seeing Weiss getting hit like that," a smirk slowly forming on Blake's lips.

Blake had doubts when she was ordered by her leader to work with Nora earlier, Nora didn't seemed like someone she could get along with but turned out she was wrong. If anything, she had thought her leader had slipped up in her order and Pyrrha was supposed to be here instead.

However, after knowing Nora a bit more, Blake was more relaxed being around the brunette compared to before. She took it as a sign of progression, a good kind.

Upon hearing that, Nora's cheek instantly brighten up as she happily continue to scrub on the wall alongside Blake.

* * *

"UGGGHHHH!" Yang Xiao Long moaned, slamming her head on the desk before her, the desk shaking heavily by the force of the blonde's strength.

It wasn't everyday one gets the chance to be in Ozpin's office. Wide space, a giant circular window, a simple table adorned near it and a chair to complement the addressed table. There was no doubt a place of work and work alone.

Yang was not seated at the most obvious place.

She was instead given a new set of tables of chair herself near Ozpin's workplace where stacks and stacks of paper were placed on top of it.

"Now now Miss Xiao Long. We wouldn't want you to be going back late do we?" Ozpin asked, sitting down on his favourite chair, admiring the sight from his window.

Yang grumbled for a while before responding, "Headmaster Ozpin, are you sure all these...papers are about the incident at the cafeteria?"

"Why Miss Xiao Long, I'm disappointed that you would think I would push unrelated paperwork to your side, wouldn't that just be irresponsible of me?" Ozpin cooed, taking a sip from his favourite coffee mug.

"I'm sorry Professor Ozpin. It's just the thought of being stuck here for some time is making me a bit...nuts," Yang said apologetically, though she still had some doubts about the contents of these documents.

Still, it was wrong of her to accuse Ozpin like that but she really couldn't stand sitting around just doing stuff like paperwork and it was making her antsy.

Accessing Yang's condition, Ozpin felt the need to step in but not too much. He placed his mug down as he stared at the young woman.

"Ah yes, I can understand why being cooped up in a place like this would drive one insane. In fact, I myself sometimes wander about even when I'm not supposed to."

This was news to her. Ozpin was the last person she would expect to do something like that seeing as he was the headmaster and all.

"Then why do you stay up here anyway? I'm sure you could just order someone else to do it and get out as much as you want, you're the headmaster afterall," Yang argued.

"Because I have a duty, a duty that I intend to uphold, a responsibility that will be with me until the day that I am unneeded."

"Woah there. No offense Professor Ozpin but don't you think that's a little bit much? I mean, I'm sure you can just let go of it, it can't be that important right?"

"Oh but it is Miss Xiao Long. I sincerely hope that you too would see it that way as well one day."

Duty.

It was something Yang had never thought of much or might have consciously tried to block it out of her mind. As an elder sister, she would always be there for Ruby, whether it be the bad times or the good times but there was just something about that word that irked her.

"Never mind that for now, you children are still young huntsmen and huntresses in training. I believe you should focus on being what you are because you might just lose it forever."

"…Yeah, alright headmaster Ozpin. Thanks for the advice, your little talk did make feel better about doing all this."

A small smile formed upon Ozpin's lips as he simply turned away and continued admiring the scenery, "You're most welcome, miss Xiao Long."

Her mind rested, Yang continued her work, hoping she could get this done because she had a sinking feeling that Ruby and the others would need her assistance.

* * *

"Well, this was an absolute disaster," one Weiss Schnee uttered in hopelessness, looking at the wreckage before her.

The kitchen was an absolute mess. Splurges of unknown ingredients here and there, smoke coming out of one of the equipment and even some of the cooking utensils stuck onto the wall.

The trio themselves did not come out unscathed either, their clothes were all dirtied and covered by what they were presumably trying to cook.

"This does indeed look like trouble," Pyrrha agreed with the heiress.

"No way guys! We can still do this," Ruby proclaimed with confidence, forming a fist.

"Ruby. I don't want to ruin your delusion of grandeur but have you not seen what just happen a few moments earlier?"

"It's okay Weiss because if we put our mind to it, I'm sure we can do it," Ruby's spirit flared and was still raring to go despite the recent failure.

"Perhaps what Weiss meant to say is that instead of trying again immediately, we should take a break for now?" Pyrrha put it nicely, trying to convince Ruby.

"Well, worse comes to worse, I suppose we can wait until Yang gets back," Weiss suggested.

"No wait! We can definitely do this on our own!" Ruby yelled out, almost instinctively the moment Yang's name was mentioned.

"Weiss does have a point. Yang's the only one among who has experience cooking compared to the rest of us. She is also much more familiar with Goku's appetite."

There was also Ren, having personally tested his cooking several times already and to put simply, they were quite divine but he was out of the equation considering the person in question was fishing with Goku at the moment.

"Nope. We'll be fine. Yup, definitely fine."

If they weren't suspicious before, they certainly were now. Weiss and Pyrrha looked to one another before facing the young leader once again.

Weiss was the one to speak up, "Just what is the matter with you right now? You were fine until just a few moments ago," she was starting to think everyone was off today, her included.

Ruby turned to the other direction, not facing them in the eye, "Matter? Haha that's funny Weiss, I'm still same ol' same ol' normal knees Ruby," Ruby said, laughing awkwardly, even for Ruby's standard.

"Would you like to talk about it? Perhaps Weiss and I can be of some assistance," Pyrrha said, delicately clasping her hands.

There were never many chances to have activities like this back in Mistral, in fact Pyrrha never found anyone who she could call a true friend until she came here to Beacon. She knew of Goku but that was after they had met.

So even though it was supposed to be a punishment, Pyrrha saw it more as a bonding activity with her friends. And to see one of her friends troubled did not sit well with her.

"I don't know…Weiss is just going to call me a kid again if I tell you guys," Ruby said, her gaze downwards toward the cold kitchen floor.

Ruby's downcast face was suddenly lifted upward as her face was squeezed by two familiar hands, her lips now puffed like a fish.

"Look here! I absolutely will not laugh at you. Do you understand me?" Weiss emphasized those last words in particular, staring at her leader.

"You sure you won't?

"No I won't."

"You promise Weiss?"

"Of course, who do you think I am?"

"Thanks bestie!" Ruby said happily as she hugged Weiss.

Weiss was more than a little surprised of Ruby's sudden jump but allowed it just this once considering the circumstance.

Ruby finally let go of Weiss, pulling a deep breath before she spoke, "The thing is… I don't want Yang to help with this, not one bit."

This puzzled the two. It made no sense Ruby didn't want her big sister's help, they would think Ruby would be more than overjoy of hearing this.

"Did you have a falling out with your sister?" it was unlikely but Pyrrha asked just to be sure.

"What? No, of course not. I love Yang, it's just..."

"Just what exactly?"

"It's just...I want Yang let me go on my own sometimes you know. I just want to prove I don't need her help all the time."

"But Ruby. Yang's your sister, it's only natural that an elder sister would help the younger one."

"Yeah but still—"

Having stayed quiet long enough, Weiss finally spoke up, "But nothing Ruby. If anything, you should be grateful that Yang cares for you like that."

In a strange way, she envied Ruby. Weiss knew Winter loved her even though her sister acts cold on the outside but it would be nice to see her big sister like that one day.

"Indeed. I envy you Ruby, I myself have no siblings to speak of," Pyrrha said, a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Just listen to me! I get why Yang wants to protect me all the time, I get it I really do...but I can't be like that forever, I won't let Yang either."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Weiss asked, her curiosity growing as the conversation went on.

Ruby hesitated for a moment. Was it right for her to tell them? After all, she only knew Pyrrha and Weiss for a semester. No, they were friends after all. She felt no reason to hide secrets from them. Sure, it involved Yang but she was just as involved.

"You know how me and Yang are sisters?"

"Of course, although never have I seen a pair as stunningly different as you two," Weiss answered.

"We're only half-sisters."

Audible gasps of surprise escaped both Pyyrrha's and Weiss's breathe but soon returned to silence as they continued listening to Ruby's story.

"Me and Yang come from different moms. Yang's real mom disappeared a long time ago and my mom is..." her voice shrinking until she went silent, letting the two understood what Ruby meant.

"Yang's been searching for her ever since she knew."

While the new tidbit of information was a bit stunning and solemn at the same time, one question crossed Weiss's mind.

"I'm sorry but what does Yang's mother have to do with what we're talking about?"

"Well...I don't understand everything but I know I'm dragging Yang down somehow. When I was just a kid, I sometime see Yang just staring beside the window and every time I call out to her, there was always this long pause before Yang even talked to me again."

"Surely that isn't enough to believe you're holding her back," Pyrrha tried reassuring the young Rose.

"It's not...but hearing her say 'mom' every time sure did. She always tried to smile after that and acts like nothing's wrong. I never liked seeing her like that, still don't," her voice trailing off as she went on, tightening her left fist.

Then, Ruby craned her neck back up, a sudden burst of fire could be seen from her eyes, "That's why I don't want Yang to worry. I want her to know that I can do just fine and she can do whatever she wanted even without me...but how can I convince her if I can't even make something as easy as preparing food..."

There was silence after. A long prolonged silence that lasted almost an eternity to Ruby. It broke the moment Pyrrha spoke again as she let out a bright smile while facing Ruby.

"Instead of trying to prove yourself so quickly, perhaps you can make a compromise for now," Pyrrha suggested.

Something about Ruby's problem struck a chord with Pyrrha. While Jaune's circumstances were nowhere near the same as Ruby's, it did reminded her of her budding leader.

"What do you mean by that?" if she couldn't do it now, when would she ever?

"Since we can't make anything difficult like a dish. Why don't we make something small, like rice?"

"But Yang would still have to do most of the work..."

"I don't think that's the point Ruby. The point is, even if it's a little, you still proved it to Yang and even yourself that you .it," Weiss interjected, stepping in.

Ruby thought carefully about what they said. Perhaps what they were trying to tell her had a point. If she couldn't prove it in one go, then she should do it slowly, like making a weapon parts by parts.

"Alright I get it. Thanks guys, means a lot to me...but don't you dare tell Yang!" Ruby yelled in her usually shrilled voice.

Weiss let out a small smile seeing her leader now back to normal, "That's more like it. It's certainly better to see obnoxious Ruby than a brooding one, now let's get to it," Weiss said playfully as she turned away from her leader.

"Indeed. Shall we begin?" Pyrrha said with a knowing smiling.

Ruby simply nodded as the three started their course of action.

* * *

The five male teens were trekking through the Emerald Forest. At the forefront was Goku, naturally he was the one leading since he was taking them to a spot for fishing. Jaune was conversing with Sun, having a bit of a kinship considering both were leaders.

"So you guys came all the way from Haven Academy?"

"Yeah! Gotta say, this place has been great so far. I mean that food fight earlier was bonkers!"

"Yeah...except for me that is," Jaune said pessimistically. Realistically, he didn't help much at the cafeteria back there.

"What, you kidding? So what if you got hit a bit, big whoop. I say you did terrific back there!" Sun congratulated, putting his hand over Jaune's shoulder.

"Thanks, I kinda needed that," it wasn't everyday he got complimented from someone he just met, it was uplifting so to speak.

"Hey Neptune! Get your butt over here," Sun called out to his teammate while Jaune awkwardly laughed.

At the back of the group was Ren and Neptune. They had been silent throughout their walk compared to their leaders. Neptune unsurprisingly didn't have much to say to the guy until he heard his leader's call for him.

"Leaders huh? Always barking orders," Neptune would know, recalling back to the day of his initiation.

"Perhaps...but they are the one who guides us and leads us to victory in battle," Ren reasoned back. While Jaune was not on their level in terms of combat just yet, Ren respected his leader even with his obvious faults.

"Heh, can't argue there. Ren was it? You're a pretty cool dude," Neptune complimented; he also really liked the long hair that Ren had going. His leader was right, these guys were pretty fun to hang around with.

"I uh...thank you, you too?"

Their conversation was cut short by a very loud voice.

"Did you hear me Neptune? Get over here or I'll kick your pretty boy face!" Sun called out to Neptune once again, annoyance clearly in his tone of voice.

Neptune shrugged as he gave Ren a nod, the two then sped up.

Once the two caught up with the rest, Goku came to a halt, with the others following suit.

"Umm Goku, why did we just stop?"

Goku placed his finger in front of his mouth, sending a message that they should stay quiet.

Using his tail, Goku pointed towards a bush beside them. The four were confused until the martial artist suddenly sprang into motion as he disappeared into the direction he was pointing towards to just now.

The others quickly followed suit as they passed through a bunch of bushes.

The moment they were out, what they saw stunned them.

A beautiful pond was before them, sparkling water with no hints of dirt, brimming with life by the sheer number of fish they were seeing swimming around.

Bewildered, Jaune decided to ask the martial artist the question they all had in their mind.

"How did you even find this place Goku? This looks incredible! Plus, I don't see any of the Grimm here either. Now that I think about it, we didn't meet any of them at all."

It was strange. Usually, they would have met a Grimm by now but there were no signs of them, not even any call of sorts.

"Hehe, those guys are easy to avoid if you've been here a lot. If you've wondering about this place, I accidentally crashed into the water here when I was practicing my jump this one time."

That had been a boring day for the martial artist so he decided to spice things up by jumping as high as his legs allowed once he positioned himself within the Emerald Forest. The results were what the four teens were seeing before them.

"So, how exactly do we fish here? I don't see any fishing rod..." Jaune asked the faunus, taking a glance at his surroundings for the object in question.

"Fishing rod?" Goku questioned while he was taking off his clothes, piling them on the ground. This caught them all off guard.

"What are you doing?" Jaune asked, covering his eyes as he did so.

"...Aren't you guys going to take off your clothes too? If you don't do that, how are you all going to catch some fish?" Goku asked the four, wondering why they haven't strip yet.

"I like the way you think Goku!" Sun said as he hastily took off his jacket and threw it on top of Goku's own clothes, sporting a cheeky grin.

"This is just as expected of you Goku," Ren reminiscent a bit before following the two faunus as he placed them on top of the pile as well. It was a bit messy of him but it wasn't so bad to do stuff like this sometimes, right?

Jaune looked between the two like they were crazy but soon let out a sigh as he too started taking off his armor.

Finally done, Goku ran towards the pond with excitement and jumped right into it.

"WOOHOO!" Goku shouted as he jumped straight into the pond, a giant splash of water scattered across the area, making the others now entirely wet from the impact.

Coming out from the water, Goku beckoned the others to join him.

"Come on guys! You better hurry before those guys come here," Goku grinned, clearly not worried of any potential Grimm attack.

"Hey Ren, why are we fishing in the middle of a Grimm infested forest again?" Jaune asked his teammate, fully knowing the answer that was about to come to him.

Ren placed his left hand on Jaune's shoulder, consoling his leader, "You get used to it."

The three went off to join Goku while a certain blue-headed teen merely sat down, enjoying everything around him except for the giant body of water nearby.

* * *

"And Tadaah! We've done it girls!" Ruby yelled in excitement as she wiped the dirt off her brows.

"Of course we would. Was there ever any doubt?" Weiss said proudly, whipping her hair back in place.

"Indeed. It certainly went much better than before," a very eager Pyrrha said with a genuine smile.

In front of them laid a beaten up but huge rice cooker, some of its content somewhat spilled but certainly still usable.

The three opened the cover, the hot air escaping from the container as they gazed on their own work.

The cooked rice itself was pristine white and from the looks of it, had a certain tenderness that one would enjoy chewing into.

Proud of their work they were, they were not delusional. They knew that the rice they made were very much similar to what they eat every day but it did gave them a new sense of appreciation, Weiss especially.

Having lived a life of wealth, Weiss never found the need to cook considering a certain butler back home. Now that she had, she felt that if she ever gone back, she would really like to thank that person for being so caring of her up until she left for Beacon.

"AAAAAHHH! I forgot!" Ruby yelled out of nowhere, startling the two beside her.

"Yes? What exactly did you forget Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, her ears still ringing from the high pitch scream.

"We need to clean this place up! If the lunch lady comes back anytime soon, we're all dead," Ruby blurted out as she waved her hands around.

"We need to think of a plan..." Weiss muttered, putting on her thinking cap.

Pyrrha looked between the two in confusion before she called out to them.

"Don't worry. I can put everything in place...at least the ones made of metal," Pyrrha assured, pointing towards the equipment scattered about.

A black light appeared around Pyrrha's hands. Moving them around, the utensils started floating in mid-air, causing the other two to stare at her, wide-eyed.

They were still very much impressed by Pyrrha's semblance and were thankful that she trusted them enough to tell her secret considering usage of it was considered a secret to Pyrrha for it was essential in her battles.

Pyrrha then moved her hands downward, causing the tools and utensils to fall down on the spot, now arranged to their original positions.

She released a breath of relief as she deactivated her semblance and turned back to the two.

"Perhaps we should start cleaning?" Pyrrha asked, ignoring what just happened.

Ruby didn't need to be told twice as she turned into a red blur, leaving the kitchen in haste.

"That dolt, always rushing things," Weiss muttered, rolling her eyes at her leader.

Pyrrha chuckled at the twos' friendship, "Yes but she still has her partner to take care of her right?"

Weiss didn't say anything, only blushing at Pyrrha's words.

* * *

A small of gust of wind came from the kitchen while Blake and Nora were just sitting on one of the cafeteria's tables.

Noticing the red blur, Nora decided to ask Blake for her opinion on the matter, "Should we go help them?"

Blake thought about it for a bit before coming to a conclusion.

"No. They'll be just fine I believe."

"Ignoring them then, come on Blake let's chat some more—Oh! Maybe we can talk about..." That was all Blake could followed before Nora's words became too quick for the cat faunus to comprehend.

Nonetheless, Blake still listened to her, trying her best to pay attention.

* * *

"How do you guys do it? I can't even catch a single one..."

Jaune had thought fishing bare-handed would be easy considering they were training to fight monsters at a combat school. Turned out, he was more than proven wrong as he hasn't caught a single fish ever since they got here.

He glanced at the others, a bit envious of their fishing skill. Goku, Ren and Sun were all having relative ease with the task. Sun was jumping from one place to another, Ren swiped at them with a precision of a scalpel and last but not least the one who brought them here in the first place was holding a giant fish four times the size of a normal person.

"Well, I live off being outside ever since I was kid. It would be weird if I didn't at least know how to fish, you know?" Sun answered his fellow leader compatriot, a small fish held by his tail.

"Yeah don't mind it. I only know how because my grandpa taught me..." Goku said, reminiscing his childhood.

"Indeed...or do you want me to help you learn?" Ren suggested.

If this was the old Jaune who had just arrived at Beacon, he would have laughed it off and tried to figure things out by himself only to end up frustrated. But he wasn't the old him and he owed it especially to one person.

"Sure, why not?" Jaune said, accepting Ren's offer.

The two then went off to the other corner of the lake, leaving the two faunus alone.

"How come Neptune doesn't wanna go fishing with us?" Goku asked Sun as he glanced to the side where Neptune was.

Sun glanced at both sides, making sure of anyone's presence before he gave an answer to Goku, "Don't tell anyone but the guy can't stand water, like at all."

Goku blinked in confusion, "How does he take a bath then?"

"Beats me. The guy doesn't want to ever admit it even when it's plain obvious to see..."

Outside the pond, Neptune was internally debating with himself whether or not he should try playing around with the staff that Goku left him to guard. Same could be said for his pouch and everyone else' clothes. He didn't want to look like a dork, especially in front of such cool people...maybe except for Sun that was.

Still, he was very much tempted to try it. He always wondered how it felt like holding a stick like that. He had his own weapon but he also wanted to get a feel of something like this and considering everyone was swimming in that pool of darkness right now...

Neptune grabbed hold of it and glanced at the others to ensure they were not noticing him before he started swinging it around.

Neptune swung the power pole from left to right before twirling around in a circle, only for it to fail mid-way, causing him to drop it on the ground.

Neptune quickly picked it back up again as he inspected it. Looking at it now, it was a simple weapon compared to their own, no modification of any sorts and there were no cylinders containing dust bullets, it was just a simple pole. Neptune wondered how exactly could Goku fight with this?

Thinking back on it, it looked nothing like Sun's own weapon. Where his leader's was long and complex, Goku's was short and simple. Neptune could understand how his leader's own pole worked but not the martial artist's...

Perhaps there was a mechanism of some sort that allowed it to extend itself? It was just unbelievable to him that Goku could fight with something this unreliable.

Accidentally, Neptune muttered the word "Extend..."

As if coming to life, a red light temporarily engulf the pole before it suddenly started expanding horizontally.

Panicking, Neptune accidentally held it upwards, causing it to place itself firmly on the ground just before the pole could hit on the pile of clothes.

Neptune released a sigh of relief, who knew what would have happen if he didn't stop that in time.

Seconds later, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Neptune! What the heck are you doing?" Sun cried out.

"Everything's cool Sun. You guys just go back and do whatever you were doing. Also, sorry for using your weapon man," Neptune apologized, his face facing towards Goku as he put his right arm above the power pole, holding it in place.

Goku, on the other hand was nonplussed about the whole thing, "It's alright. But if you wanna use the power pole, then ya gotta be careful because—"

Before Goku could possibly finish, Neptune suddenly fell down as he felt the weight under his arm disappear.

This caused the power pole to flip upwards, launching the pile of clothes into the air.

Sun's mouth was wide agape seeing this. There was no way that just happened right?

Recovering from the fall, Neptune looked up and was greeted by the sight of the clothes flying away as they got carried by the wind.

He was starting to think it was a bad idea for him to do this at all.

Heavy footsteps approach him and before he knew it, someone was facing him with a not so happy face.

"NEEEEPTUUUNE! What. did. you. do?" Sun emphasized every one of his words as he shook the teen back and forth while still naked in broad daylight.

Having sick of getting rattled, Neptune gestured his leader to stop and Sun did as followed.

"Stay cool. It's fine," Neptune assured, trying to calm his leader.

Unfortunately, it did not go well.

"Cool? COOL? We just lost all our clothes! There's no way we can even find them in the middle of this huge forest! What's worse, we don't have the time to find them either, arrgggghh!" Sun snapped at Neptune, his eyes twitching from this new revelation.

"Okay look, I...screw up. It was mostly my fault—"

"Mostly?" Sun's eyebrow lifted upwards, scrutinizing his teammate.

"Alright, all of it. I got carried away and...I'm sorry, not just you but to every one of the guys here," Neptune hung his head low, shame evident on him.

Sun let out a sigh and smiled knowingly, "It's fine Neptune. I got a bit too heated myself just now, sorry about that bud."

The others finally got out of the pond and moved towards their location, Goku clearly confused what was so urgent while Jaune and Ren each had worried faces.

"Sorry you guys. I lost all your clothes..."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like they're anything important," Goku said happily, not minding his lack of clothing at the moment.

"Goku, we need those for you know, our dignity," Jaune explained.

"Why would we need those?" Goku was still confused by the importance of what he was wearing.

"Nevermind then. Anyway, apology accepted Neptune. It's not like you did that on purpose, I can think of several worse things honestly," Jaune certainly could considering he himself arguably had.

"I agree. We should not dwell on the past, instead we should look for a solution," Ren wasn't mad, in fact he should have been more careful earlier.

"You guys are really cool, you know that?" Neptune couldn't help but smile at these guys.

"Now, how do we fix our little problem..."

Jaune then noticed the giant fish Goku was carrying earlier and had an idea.

* * *

"Almost...there..."

Yang was beat. Who knew doing paperwork was more strenuous than punching people and Grimm alike? Certainly not this huntress in training.

She looked around, scanning her work area. While they were still some papers left, most of it had been stacked neatly underneath her desk.

"You're doing well Miss Xiao Long. In fact, would you like a position in secretarial work in the future?" Ozpin joked. It was relaxing to chat with one of his students from time to time.

"Thanks for the offer Professor Ozpin but no thanks. I think I'll be seeing myself going out there and just being a huntress."

After all, she came here to be a huntress and that's what she'll be when she gets out.

"Hmm...I wonder about that," Ozpin hummed, keeping his thoughts to himself.

Yang was about to ask what was the older man implying until she spotted something out of the corner of her eyes.

At the edge of the desk was a piece of paper with a very familiar picture of someone on it, one particular thief named Roman Torchwick.

After that whole incident, team RWBY had all taken a vow to take on the White Fang together. They hadn't got much of a lead but they did have a plan set later on but if she could get Roman's location, they could get some information from him regarding the White Fang. It would be better than them trying to take a shot in the dark at the very least.

Up until this point, they were well aware Roman was being held somewhere in the school but never knew where his location was. Considering it was under keeps, it was only expected. However, Yang was now presented a choice. She could either take the paper in secret from Ozpin or just let it go and go with their original plan. Yang weighted her options and finally decided on one as she turned to Ozpin.

"Hey Professor Ozpin, you wanna hear a paper joke?"

Ozpin was wary of Yang's sudden cheerfulness but decided to indulge her.

"Go ahead Miss Xiao Long, I'm not one to stop jokes."

"You know what? Nevermind, it was tearable."

Ozpin let out a small chuckle at that, "I see, now you are just tearing me apart."

Yang couldn't help but laugh at that, "Oh man! That was awesome Professor Ozpin! Where did you learn that?" it was nice to know someone appreciate a good pun beside her dad.

"I dabble from time to time..." Ozpin replied, distracted by his thoughts as he thought back to the past.

In her excitement, Yang almost forgot about the paper. Sneakily, Yang quickly tucked it under her pocket, trying not to make a sound.

"Whew, made it..." Yang whispered under her breath.

"What was that Miss Xiao Long?"

Yang turned away from Ozpin and started getting back into gear, "Nothing Professor Ozpin. Just...thanks for the joke, it helps."

"I thank you as well."

The room turned silent once more except for the sound of the pen scribbling on the paper.

* * *

"All organized in a timely manner, check. No wasted materials anyway, check. I think this is as much as we can do..." Weiss noted, fiddling with her scroll.

"Wonderful. Now we just have to wait."

Pyrrha was pleased with what she did today. It was nice being so...normal for a change!

"Yup," Ruby stated, having just arrived back from returning the cleaning supplies.

Before, the state of the kitchen could be said to be a tragedy but now, it was in a state of cleanliness that even the janitor would be jealous of. The floor waxed, the kitchen utensils now cleaned, everything was sparkling in their eyes.

"So you guys finally done with your end of the work?" A curious Nora asked as she popped in, followed by a very impassive Blake.

"Everything's A-Okay, well beside the fact we can't cook to save our lives...if only cookies were actually considered a meal instead of a snack!"

Ruby cursed the gods that dictated these rules!

"Ruby, even if they get changed, it would still not be enough to feed our very hungry customer," Blake pointed out.

The young Rose quickly quieted down before the sound of a door slamming was heard.

All five girls got out of the kitchen to see who their visitor was, hoping it wasn't Milar.

"Hey guys! I'm back!" Goku saluted them, a giant fish being carried around his shoulder.

Not only were they surprised by the huge aquatic creature but were also caught off guard by Goku's new attire.

A red jacket and leather just looked weird to them, not that it was bad per say...but it was just strange considering the kind of person Goku was.

It also suddenly occurred to them Jaune and Ren were not with the monkey faunus. They looked around but found nothing.

Curious, Pyrrha spoke up.

"Goku, where exactly are Jaune and Ren? Weren't they supposed to be with you right now?"

"Yeah. What did you do to them? Did you maybe…drown them?" Nora emphasized the last part, trying to scare the faunus.

"Oh? They accidentally fell into the water and got their clothes wet so I told them to go back when we got here. Pretty funny huh?" Goku explained, scratching his head as he did so.

"Speaking of clothing, where exactly did you get that?" Weiss asked the martial artist, pointing out his new attire.

"Ahaha...I always had them?" Goku laughed weirdly, not convincing any of them.

Ruby started pulling the faunus by the arms, struggling to do so by the looks of it.

"Who cares about that? Come on Goku, while we wait for Yang we can—"

Surprised by the sudden pull, Goku accidentally let go of the fish he was carrying, letting it fall right smack on the ground.

Now, it wouldn't be anything unusual as far as a giant fish crashing to the ground was. But in this case however, there was a distinct difference.

"OUCH!"

A voice came out of it and seconds later, four teenagers slide right out of the mouth of the fish.

The girls look in utter shock, frozen by the sight of the boys.

It was as plain as day the four young men were all bare naked, nothing covering and all of it were visible for the girls to see.

Breaking the silence, Sun let out a single word.

"Hey?"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Yang was walking over to the cafeteria right now, having been finally freed from the dread of doing paperwork, something she hoped she would never see or touch again.

Yang had a suspicious feeling that they would need her help, particularly in the area of cooking, an expertise of hers. Knowing how the rest of Team RWBY weren't exactly great with a knife, she didn't exactly have confidence in Pyrrha's or Nora's cooking skill either. They were all great fighters but when it came to something else however...

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Yang quickly started sprinting once she heard the collective yell from the cafeteria. It must have been something serious if it was able to make any of them screamed like that.

She busted through the doors and what she saw definitely stopped her in her tracks.

There, a few feet away, was Goku and four others with him. Obviously, it was Jaune and Ren but Sun was also there with someone she was not familiar with.

But that wasn't the main point. The most glaring thing about them was the fact that all of them sans Goku were...naked.

Yang could feel her cheeks redden as she stared at the four. She quickly turned to the others, wanting to know their own reactions.

"AAARRRRGGGHHH! My eyes, it burns!" Ruby yelled out, her vision obscured by covering both her eyes.

The same could be said for the others. They were all covering their eyes, their cheeks as red as a rose, embarrassed by the situation at hand.

However, while they were blocking their views, they were also peeking through the little gaps in their fingers, trying to take a look. All except for Ruby of course, who was still screaming aloud while walking around in random direction.

"Guys, I know what you're thinking but just—"

Jaune's state of mind was not at rest right now. Not only did the girls found out, there was also no way for them to escape. Jaune's eyes kept darting around until he saw Yang pull out a Scroll out.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Jaune gulped, this was not something good, was it?

"Oh. Just taking a picture of you guys and posting it on the school news board, gotta make a killing somehow you know?"

"Goku, don't you have anything to get us out of this situation?" Sun asked in a panic tone, grabbing his fellow faunus by the shoulder.

"Oh! I think I have just the thing. Cover your eyes and run as fast as you can," Goku whispered to them, not letting the girls hear about their conversation.

They followed the martial artist's instruction to the letter, wanting this embarrassment to end.

Standing between Yang and the guys, Goku placed both his hands across his forehead as he shut his eye.

"Solar Flare!"

A blinding light engulfed the area they were in. They had no choice but to close their eyes, trying to prevent themselves from being blinded.

The flashing light lasted only but for a few seconds. Once the light subsided, the girls finally got their visions back.

What was once occupied by Jaune and the others were now nothing but empty space, only Goku left standing.

"Where did they go?" Pyrrha asked, still recovering from the light earlier.

* * *

"Whew, good thing we left. Really didn't want my embarrassment to last longer than it should. Really glad Goku bailed us out," a still naked Sun remarked.

The four had run as fast as they could to the nearest exit when Goku gave them the chance. Currently, they were hiding in team JNPR's room, exhausted due to all the running they had just done.

"Yeah…can't believe they all saw us like this…" Jaune said, his breathing ragged as he tried to catch his breath.

"You two know them right? What do you think the chances are of them forgetting any of this happened?"

Neptune didn't want his reputation tarnished before it even started; after all, he was starting to like this place.

"Knowing them, it's going to be a very long time before any of them would ever forget," Ren stated realistically.

"Great….just great."

"You know what? I think we should be optimistic here guys, the girls won't do anything bad to us so…we should just try to forget this ever happened," Jaune tried to cheer them up.

"What makes you so sure?" Sun asked skeptically, not believing in Jaune's words.

"I know so. I mean, that's what friends are for right?" Jaune answered, finality in his voice.

"Jeez, if you say it like that, guess there's no problem then," though, he would like if Blake never mention it in the near future, even once. Knowing the cat faunus's personality, there was a high chance of that happening, an instance where he was grateful for her seriousness.

"How about we change into our clothes first, it's getting a bit breezy," Ren suggested, starting to feel the cold breeze.

"You mind if you lend us some?" Sun asked for him and Neptune.

"Of course not, there's no way we would leave you out like this," Jaune assured them. Who would be so cruel to leave two people naked, he sure wouldn't.

"Seriously? You think you got any extra hoodies cause I really like the one I saw you wear earlier," Neptune asked almost enthusiastically.

Now calmed down, the four decided to stay there for a while before hiding from the girls again, not wanting to meet them in the eyes, at least momentarily.

* * *

"Hehe. They escaped when you guys couldn't see anything."

Goku couldn't help be giddy about the fact that his new technique worked. He had gotten the idea ever since they went into the ruins, especially that one particular trial where he was split from Velvet.

"Darn. I really wanted their pictures too."

"Yang, putting it on the news board like that would be too much, even if they...themselves have violated the law," Weiss coughed at the last part.

"Oh please, I wasn't really going to post it there. I was thinking more in lines of...blackmail, like maybe doing my homework?" Yang answered with a cheeky smile.

Blake rolled her eyes at that while Weiss had a face that screamed she couldn't believe what her teammate was implying.

Their attentions were back on Goku when a familiar growl came from his stomach.

"Guess I'm getting really hungry," Goku laughed it off, holding his stomach in tow.

"Hey Rubs, did you guys cook up anything for him?"

"No...not really. We were only able to make some rice," Ruby stuttered as she spoke, afraid of what's to come.

"That's great Rubs! Now you just leave the rest to your big sis," Yang praised her sister, rubbing her cheeks against Ruby's.

"Come on Yang...not in front of Weiss and the others."

Ruby was feeling pretty embarrassed being seen like this by everyone. Still, it was nice that Yang acknowledge her, even if it was the tiniest bit.

"And what do we have here?"

Milar's loud voice boomed throughout the hall, causing everyone to focus on her.

"So are ya all done?"

Being the leader, Ruby decided to speak up.

"Yes mam. Well, except the food..."

"Is everything still a mess?" She asked, glancing sideways toward the wall.

"Nope, everything spick and span."

Milar's stern demeanor turned into a cheery one as she gave a giant smile.

"Good then. Judging from the looks of the pike, it seems he's hungry and with the fish he caught, this will be simple," she claimed confidently as he rolled up her sleeves.

Finally feeling the effects of his hunger, Goku lost strength in both his legs as he finally fell down flat on his face.

Worried, the others huddled around the martial artist.

"Goku, are you...alright?" Ruby asked, worried.

"I...think...so...just...really...hunggrrryy..."

Milar picked up the faunus and put him in the same position she put Yang earlier.

"Well then, it's a good thing you have me here. Yang, you pick up the fish and we cook up something for this fool."

While she could certainly do it herself, having a helping hand in the kitchen would lessen the burden.

"You got it, mama!"

Milar started carrying Goku towards the kitchen with Yang dragging the fish around.

The moment she crossed paths with Blake, Yang quickly inserted the document into Blake's hand. The cat faunus clearly having no idea what it was before she opened it.

Her eyes widen in surprise by the information inside it. She then turned towards Yang, "How did you—"

"We'll talk about this later, all of us got it?"

With those parting words, Yang disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Blake more anxious on what was ahead.

* * *

"So that meeting thing is about to begin soon, what do we do without Roman or the Atlesian Paladin?" Emerald asked the two people in the same room as her.

"Good point. Without any of the two, I doubt the faunus will even work with us," Mercury added, limping against a wall.

"Now now, don't you worry your heads about that. I might have said nothing's change but that's not exactly true, at least for the minor details..." Cinder stated, already a contingency plan in mind for a scenario like this.


	22. Side Story: A Cold Place

 

Atlas was a cold continent, snow in every direction, white as you could ever get in Remnant, where valuable resources were abound, just waiting to be excavated and used for the purpose of humanity. From the outside, Atlas was a city of pristine beauty but from the inside, it was anything but.

* * *

Down in the streets, there was a young girl walking around. She was about 10 years old, had long silver hair reaching to her waist, and snow-white tail with a tint of black at the tip of it. She was wearing ragged clothes and was also barefooted, her feet touching the cold snow. On her right hand was a basket full of clothes, and she was currently desperately talking with strangers, in hopes that someone would exchange her clothing in her hand for a few lien. Try as she might, no one gave her the time of the day, not even acknowledging her existence. Eventually, night settled in and everything turned to dark.

As the wave of people continued to pass the streets, meanwhile the little girl was crawled up in a small narrow alleyway, tears dropping from her eyes as her body continued to shiver.

This wasn't the first day she had done this. Every day for a month now, she had gone to the streets, walking under the cold snow, interacting with people and just like today, it was the same result.

She just didn't know what to feel anymore as she realized that this was becoming entirely pointless. Her feet ached, her throat was dry, her body hurt but the most painful of all, was that she couldn't keep the one promise she wanted to keep for herself.

She was brought back into reality as the voice of a civilized man entered her eardrums.

"Hey there, don't you think it's a little late for a little girl like you?" The man said softly.

She didn't respond however, knowing that doing so couldn't possibly better her situation in any way.

Noticing her silence, the man spoke once again, "Perhaps you would like to come with me? I couldn't possibly leave a poor little thing like you out in the open like this," the man said, his eyes focusing on her black and white tail.

Perhaps it was because of her condition, or even the stress that had built up to this point but the girl instantly felt relieved the moment she heard his words. She then lifted her head, but taken aback by what she saw.

The man was like any other citizens of Atlas. In fact, there was nothing discernible about him. However, there was one thing that separated him from the others she saw. While the people in Atlas were mostly just apathetic to her as they only gave her a cold glare, the man in front of him however was letting out a malicious smile.

It was such a sudden change, it made her immediately aware of the danger in front of her.

Just as she realized the danger of the situation, she was swiftly kicked to the ground, her body now being placed in hold by the man's foot.

The man then picked up the basket and ruffled through the contents while throwing most of them on the floor, "What are these, clothes? Tch, no one would want this trash. Here I thought you would be something of worth to me."

The man then had an idea and picked the little girl up by the collar, a perverted grin on his face," I suppose there are other ways… "

The girl may have been scared, but her desire to escape overcame her instinctual fear.

Mustering all her strength, she kicked the man right in the family jewels, causing the man to drop both her and the basket as he felt a sudden pain in his lower half.

"YOUUUUUUUU!"

As the man was distracted by the pain enveloping his lower half, the girl took her chance to escape and grabbed her basket, running as fast as she could.

"You won't get out this easy, girl!" The man yelled, still recovering from the wound earlier.

After a few minutes, the girl stopped her running in the opened streets, now short out of breath and was sure she was out of her assailant's field of vision. Just to be certain however, she turned her head around to check if her assailant was chasing after her. Releasing a sigh of relief, she trudged on as she wanted to find a place to sleep. Unfortunately, her tired body wouldn't allow her that luxury as she fell down to on a small bump covered in snow, the back of her head resting on it.

Lying there, she stared lifelessly at the snow around her as passerby walked by her but never noticing her appearance, as if she didn't exist at all. The little girl knew in the back of her mind that she wouldn't make it out of this. Tears started to drop from her eyes as she didn't want to die, she still had a promise to fulfill to her grandmother.

As the tears continued to flow from her eyes, she felt a sudden rumbling that was vibrating by the snow she was resting on. She believed it was just a hallucination at first but that illusion quickly shattered as the snow erupted into the air. Luckily, she was able to roll away before the snow exploded.

Lifting her head, she saw a tiny figure emerged out of it but she couldn't make anything out due to the heavy snow. The individual was walking slowly towards her but just as he was up close for her to see; she fainted, finally succumbing to her fatigue.

The small figure merely stared at the young girl before it, the cold wind picking up speed, getting ever heavier and heavier.

* * *

She slowly opened her eyes, a feeling of dizziness accompanying it. Having just woken up, she was surprised to say the least at her current location.

Looking around, she seemed to be at what looks like the inside of a small warehouse. One she had never stumbled on despite the hours she had done walking around the city.

"So you're back on your feet huh? That's good."

The voice immediately put her on guard as she back away from the voice but she relaxed the moment she saw who the voice belonged to.

"Brrr...This place is really cold, haven't felt anything as cold as this, not since grandpa brought back an iceberg back home."

It was a boy close to her age. He had normal features that any boy had but the most sticking point about him was the spiky hair that the boy had. It was a first for her to see someone's hair to be as ridiculous as his was.

"Ah yes...were you the one who saved me?" she asked, wanting to know the truth.

"I guess? All I did was carry you around and the basket with you. It sure took me a while to find a place to rest though..." the spiky-haired boy replied.

The girl suddenly starting crying, bawling her eyes out. The boy immediately got worried as he thought he said something wrong.

"Uhh..."

"Thank you...thank you so much..." the girl muttered repeatedly, not noticing the boy was being unsure how to take in all this. These were one of the times he wished a certain blonde and redhead were here with him but since that wasn't the case, he tried to comfort the girl to the best he could.

"You don't have to thank me much. But I really would like it if I can borrow some of your clothes over there, it's really cold here," the boy pointed towards the pile of clothes in the basket that was placed beside her, his teeth chattering as he spoke.

"Of course you can. It's the least I can do after all," she responded, having dried up her tears from earlier.

After picking up the clothes from the basket, the girl gave a blue thick coat to him.

While putting it on, she decided to ask him some questions.

"Why didn't you just take them when I was still sleeping on the snow?" throughout her limited years, she learned that not everyone was kind to one another, even if they are from the same species.

"Why would I? Grandpa taught me that stealing is not a good thing to do..." though he was never told by his grandpa on how to act proper, but stealing was something his grandfather forbid considering that one time he tried to steal his grandpa's portion of the dumplings. Suffice to say, he wasn't let off easy and he never once tried it again.

"Grandpa huh..."

The situation was silent once again as the girl hung her head down, staying silent for several moments.

Trying to lift the mood, Goku gave a wide grin as he started speaking, "Hey. What's your name?"

"Umm...what?" her head now lifted, staring into the boy's happy smile.

"Your name. I can't just keep calling you 'you'. I tried that before, it was really confusing at the time."

The girl hesitated for a moment, before she gave an answer.

"It's Snow."

"Nice to meet ya Snow, I'm Goku. So, what were you doing earlier sleeping on the cold like that?" Goku asked, curiosity in his tone.

"I was getting—wait, why were you buried under a pile of snow in the first place?" Snow shot back, her demeanor slowly returning to normal.

"Me? I fell down because it was really cold," Goku explained, his hand scratching his head.

Thinking back to it, Goku initially didn't seem like someone that came from Atlas judging from his choice of clothes. But that brought another question, why was he here?

"You still haven't answered me. Why were you sleeping on the snow there?"

"It's a long story..."

Upon hearing that, Goku simply sat down on the cold snow, his head tilted slight with his eyes fully opened.

"I have time," Goku stated simply as he continued to stare at Snow.

She hesitated for a bit before answering, "Well..."

* * *

"I see. That guy wasn't very nice was he?" Goku said out loud.

Even he could tell she wasn't satisfied with her situation, evident by the constant sniffing as she explained the events that transpired.

"What are you going to do now?" Goku asked.

"Just try my best for tomorrow!" She declared but slowly went silent as time passed by, before she spoke once again.

"...At least, that's what grandmother would do."

"What does your grandma have to do with this?" the monkey faunus asked.

"Everything. I want to sell clothes because that's what my grandmother used to do. In fact, she even told me once that her dream was to open up a clothing shop all out here in Atlas. Isn't that amazing?" far as she knew, she had never seen anyone as brave as her grandmother.

"...Eventhough I say all that. I just don't think I can handle it anymore. It's just too painful whenever I try and sell them." she remembered those cold and unforgiving eyes every time she tried to go up to them. Those eyes only told her that she was worth a speck of dust in their eyes.

Goku stayed silent for a bit as he watched how Snow poured her heart out to him.

Then, an idea struck him.

"Then how about you come with me until you find somewhere to live?" Goku asked, standing up from his sitting position.

"I can't just do that. That would make grandmother sad if her dreams can never be fulfilled so that's why I need to hurry up and—"

Lifting her head, she was greeted by the sight of Goku's cheerful smile, only inches away from her.

"You'll only be living somewhere else for a bit. You won't really be leaving here forever you know?"

"Even so… That would just make me a coward. My grandmother would never want that..." the idea of letting down her most beloved person did not sit well with her.

"Yeah, but you're not your grandma. Plus, a smart guy told me once that I should slow down and rest whenever I train too much or else everyone would leave me behind," to this day, he still remember those words Ozpin left him.

"But what does that have to—"

"That means you need to rest for a bit, and once you're back, you might even have enough strength to do that clothes selling... thing," Goku said, stumbling a bit at the last part as he had no idea what was the point of selling clothes. Then again, her clothes were the things that saved him from the cold.

Snow thought about it for a while. Was it right for her to do this? Would her grandmother be disappointed in her if she did? But Goku had a point, she wasn't exactly helping in her grandmother's dream if no one even wanted to buy any of them. Perhaps she could learn something if she traveled the world for a bit.

"Alright. I always wanted to see what was beyond Atlas anyway but I have something to take care off before we leave..." there was only one person she was thinking of at the moment.

"Okay. But after you do that, can we walk around here for a bit? I only just got here after all..."

Just after Goku finished talking, his stomach let out a loud rumbling, startling her.

She quickly nodded her head in embarrassment before she led Goku out of the building.

* * *

"Where exactly is this place?" Goku asked, his eyes blinking in curiosity at the sight before him.

Just in front of the two lied a small tunnel underneath all the snow. From the looks of it, it seemed to lead further underground if what Goku saw was to believe.

"It's a dust mine," she stated simply.

It wasn't the most pleasant of places, no. In fact, for as long as she knew, the faunus have always here worked underground, mining from dusk till dawn. That's why one does not usually see, if any faunus up and about in the city.

"Oh. Then are we supposed to go in th—"

Before Goku could finish, the two heard the sounds of footsteps approaching.

Turning their back, the two saw five men approaching them, each of their faces obscured from the falling snow.

"Like I said before, there's no way for you to hide, little girl~" The voice of the man in the middle amongst them voiced out.

Snow was confused at the man's calling of her, until she finally realized who she was confronting.

His tall stature and smile gave it all away. She instantly backed away in fear.

"Seems you didn't forget...good. You know, after you did 'you-know-what' to me, my mind was on one thing after that… payback. That's why you should stay quiet and let me and my friends here take you somewhere...nice. That goes the same as well for the brat over there."

One might say it was excessive of him to bring hired goons for a little girl that was not capable of defending himself. But to the man, nothing would feel better than traumatizing the girl after the humiliation he received. Oh no, his pride would never allow it if he let it slide.

Noticing the shift in mood, Goku stood in front of his new friend as he tried to cover her.

Turning towards her, he gave Snow a big confident smile.

"Leave this to me. I don't know what you need to do inside but you can go on ahead, I can handle these guys."

"There's no way I can just leave you like this!"

"Don't worry. I'm pretty strong you know? Plus, if I lose here, there's no way I can ever face grandpa again. After all, I'm training to be the best."

"The best..."

Those words resonated with her. Seeing Goku's calm demeanor as well made her decide to run into the mines as she left Goku to deal with them.

Noticing the girl left, the tall man clicked his tongue before turning towards Goku.

"Well aren't you a precocious child? I suppose this is what small faunus children were taught from birth after all, basically none."

"Are you gonna stop talking now? Cause I really need some training and you guys look like perfect warm-ups. My whole body feels really stiff ever since I got here so it would be nice if all of you can come at me at once."

To emphasize his point, Goku started stretching his arms and legs, leaving the men irritated at the faunus's taunt.

With a snap of his finger, the four men rushed towards the young martial artist.

Responding in kind, Goku readied his stance for the incoming assault.

* * *

It was a strange feeling once she was inside. The mine could be described as many things: cold, dreadful, bitter...but she trudged on as she passed a number of faunus slaving away, the clanging sounds of metal reverberating throughout the mine, no one minding her presence here either, just like the outside.

Then, she finally came to a stop.

A man stood before her, his back turned against as he held up a pick axe, hacking away at the wall in a repeated motion of lifting it up and striking it down, with a tail very similar to Snow's own.

"Father..."

Realizing who that was, the man stopped his swing mid-way as he turned around to face her.

"What are you doing here for? Aren't you supposed to be out helping that old wench?"

"That's no way to talk of grandma like that!"

"And that's no way to treat your father either!"

...

Nothing but silence engulfed the area the two were in. Neither speaking after their outburst, that was until the older one spoke.

"State your business already. Unlike you, I have work to do."

She stuttered a bit, before she sucked in the air around her.

"I WANT TO GO OUT OF ATLAS AND EXPLORE THE WORLD!"

It took everything she had to yell as loud as she did. To think she's actually talking to her father like this, it was almost unreal.

Her father's face remained stoic as he merely continued on his work.

She was crestfallen. She knew her father was cold to her ever since the passing of her grandmother but even then, he still took care of her at least, as silent and unwelcoming the days she spent with him were.

Just as Snow was about to leave, her father suddenly spoke.

"Do whatever you want. Just don't come crawling back to me in a day or so."

She was irritated, hearing her father belittled her like this so she replied with the same ferocity.

"I won't. I'll come back here one day, and I'll prove I can make grandma's dream come true!"

Having said her piece, she quickly left the area as she ran past through the other workers, finally becoming out of sight for her father's vision.

Staring at the position she was standing at just now, the man only let off a grunt and whispered under his breath.

"Stupid girl, when will she ever learn?"

* * *

Snow was greeted by the falling snow once again as she got out of the mine and something else that she doesn't see every day.

Several feet ahead of her laid a giant snowball that could fit an entire room, with several passerby gawking at the sure ridiculousness.

What surprised her even more was the heads of several men popping out of the giant frozen liquid, specifically the men who were threatening her earlier.

"Hey~ so you finally came out huh? It was getting boring just poking their heads like this!" Goku yelled out, holding his trusty power pole in hand.

"You stupid kid! Let me outta here or you're going to get it later!" the tall man cried out, still frustrated by how him and his men were defeated by a simple kid.

"No way. You're just gonna do something bad again," Goku stated simply.

The man's angered expression slowly turned into one of benevolence as he gave an angelic smile.

"Please child. Everyone makes mistake. Can't you find it in your heart to free me and my men from this imprisonment? We stand no chance against you after all."

Goku stared at him for several moments, considering if he should comply with his request.

"No Goku! We shouldn't let them out, at least until they can't find us," Snow cried out as she ran towards them.

"You think? Well they did do a bad thing..."

Goku then turned back towards the man and stuck out his tongue.

"Bleh. Guess you're just going to stay there for little longer," Goku stated happily.

The man was about to open his mouth but was immediately bonked in the head by Goku's power pole, rendering him unconscious.

Feeling relieved, Snow asked of her would be companion on where they were going next.

"So where exactly are we going for our next destination?" she asked, her excitement at the prospect of travelling growing now that she was allowed to roam free.

"Can't we go walking around this city a bit? I thought you promise to take me around. Plus, I'm getting hungry again."

Ah.

In her excitement, she forgot about that little tidbit. She supposed it wouldn't take too long to stroll around the city, though the shops around probably wouldn't allowed them in anyway but a promise was a promise after all.

"Sorry, I got excited just now. How about we go in that direction first?" She said, pointing to a street filled with people.

"Sure, let's go! Before that though, I think you should wear something better than that," Goku advised, pointing towards her torn clothes.

"But I don't have any—," she quiet down as she suddenly realize the basket in her hands.

There were not much of the clothes left due to the incident at the alley. This was as much as she had salvaged. None of them fit them either as she only sold adult clothes.

Then, she had an idea.

* * *

Goku stood around in the corner of an alleyway, absorbing the scenes around him. After being in Atlas for a while, he quickly realized there wasn't much for him to do here despite the many people here.

First off, he was not allowed into shops of any kind. Course, it didn't affect him much since he never had any money to begin with, and hunting for food was something that was natural to him, though dipping his tail in cold water was an experience he hoped to never experience again.

Second, He couldn't talk to anyone around him. It was like he was air or something, no matter how loud he was when speaking to them. It was just weird.

Now, he could only stare at his surroundings while he waited for his new travelling companion to finish up. The only things that interested him in Atlas were the symbols of snowflakes that were slapped everywhere and the giant airship hovering above him that reminded him of Nimbus.

"I'm done. Come on Goku, let's go!" Snow yelled enthusiastically as she came out from the corner, sporting a new look.

The outfit was an assortment of clothes patched together, clearly visible by the amounts of thread stringing them altogether. Green, blue, yellow…those were the pattern-like colours her new shirt and long skirt now had.

As noticeable as her new clothes were, they were mostly obscured by the gray snow jacket as she put it on, the fur hood now covering her head, with two short ears sticking out of it.

Upon seeing her new attire, Goku started darting around her as he sniffed her out, making the girl confused and embarrassed.

"Uhhh… What are you doing?"

After having enough, Goku stopped his peculiar action and tried to explain himself.

"Your clothes smell like someone else's, especially the jacket."

"Really? What does it smell like to you?"

"It smells…nice and feels kind of warm," it reminded him of his grandfather and as such, made Goku grinned upon the remembrance.

That made her smile, just the fact that her grandmother was still here and watching over her was a very comforting thought.

"So…where do we go first?" she asked, wanting to waste no time on her new journey.

Goku tilted his head in confusion as he answered back, "Don't…know?"

Son Goku never did and never would make a plan, or at least anything specific. So far, this method had worked well for him…for the most part. In fact, he was about to just walk out of the city and work it out from there.

Luckily for the traveling martial artist, someone beside had more knowledge on the geography here than he ever will.

"Well if you don't know where to go…maybe we can sneak across one of the airships," she suggested.

"Nope," Goku said simply.

"Why can't we?"

"Cause that would be cheating. I wanna train and using something like that won't get me any stronger," Goku argued.

Well, this was certainly going to be much more difficult than she thought.

"There is a place that I heard of…but there's no way we can go through it."

"What is it?" Goku asked, intrigued.

"It's the legendary Ice Cavern. People used to use it to travel that but not many made out of it, it's such a scary place…" She said, remembering the warnings that her grandmother and even her father told her.

"Ooh! We have to go there then!" Goku said, his eyes now burning with spirit. It sounded like a perfect place for him to test his mettle.

"Are you serious?" she couldn't believe him, how could he be so cheery about all this?

"If you don't want to go, that's okay. But I really want to go there."

"There's no way I can do that! After all, you promised to take me around until I can find a place to stay right?"

"So does that mean you're going with me then?"

"Yes. I'm going with you. Where else could I go anyway?"

Goku paused. He then started inspecting her, which made Snow questioned his action in response.

"Umm, what are you doing this time?" unlike before, she was less embarrassed and more confused.

"Nothing. It just seemed like you're a bit different than before."

Did she? She didn't feel any different, just much more…free now.

"You're probably imagining it. Come on, let's get moving!" She said whimsically as she started walking.

"If you say so…but you're definitely not going to keep up with me!"

Before Snow realized it, Goku had already ran past her. She quickly chased after him as best as she could and shouted at him.

"Goku! Do you even know which direction are you even going?"

Goku ignored her as he kept running while she tried her best as she could just to keep up.

Perhaps this was going to be more arduous than Snow first thought.

However, she was determined to prove everyone here in Atlas, especially her father, wrong and more importantly, to realize her grandmother's dream.


	23. A Visit

It was a peaceful day at Beacon Academy. While the incident at the cafeteria earlier was a bit of a mess but Ozpin certainly paid it no heed, especially so since a student had done the paperwork for it. He was even pleasantly surprised by how relaxing the conversation he had with Miss Xiao Long just now.

Yes, this was the kind of peace he wanted to preserve, not just for himself, but for the staff and the students here.

It was a shame it wouldn't last.

Ozpin stood up from his chair, a cup of coffee in hand as he stared at the outside from his window, where he was greeted with fleets of airship covering the sky.

He had a very good guess who was about to pay him a visit soon.

* * *

"So you're telling me Roman Torchwick, a criminal that has been clearly apprehended, was hiding somewhere in the school ever since then?" Weiss asked, trying to confirm what Yang told her just now.

After a certain martial artist was full having eaten his fill, team RWBY had decided to retreat back into their room for the day. Once they were back, Yang decided to tell them all regarding the item she found at Ozpin's office.

"Yup. Even his whereabouts are known right here, see?" Yang replied, pointing towards a part of the paper that was placed on the table.

Though she was thankful there was now a lead in stopping the White Fang, Blake still had something nagging on her about this new piece of information.

"But why would Professor Ozpin keep a dangerous individual like Roman here?"

"Now that you mention it...surely the police should have handled this matter," Weiss added, noting that it was suspicious that a criminal of all things was being kept here without the police's notice. Worse if it was.

"Yeah...don't you think Professor Ozpin should have told us all about this? I mean, a little heads up would have been nice..." Yang remarked.

There was an air of distrust glooming over them with this new revelation. Perhaps their headmaster wasn't as trusting as he seemed. What else was he hiding?

Their thoughts were snapped back into reality as their leader's loud and clear voice suddenly let out.

"There has to be a good reason why he did it!"

Ever since Ozpin's advice helped her reconciled with Weiss, Ruby had felt a great deal of respect for her headmaster. Sure, it was...weird that Ozpin kept the fact he was hiding Roman from them but that didn't change her view of him. Plus, there were other things they needed to be worried about.

"But don't you think it's strange that he's withdrawing this kind of information from us? Roman's dangerous after all, we of all people should know that," Blake argued, remembering that particular night.

"And who is to say that only he is involved in this? It's not impossible for the staff to be aware of this as well," Weiss reasoned.

Yang's train of thought stopped upon hearing that. If all the staff was involved, did this mean that her best friend of all people was actually keeping a secret from her?

No, there was no way right?

Contrary to the other three, Ruby was the only one who held firm of her trust on the headmaster.

"...I know that I might sound really naive or something right now, but I think we should focus on the White Fang first. We can find out what's going on later but right now, the White Fang is what we're here for right?"

The three nodded their heads albeit reluctantly, this conversation for sure wasn't going to be forgotten so easily.

Yang clapped her hands as she tried to lighten up the mood, "Well then, let's go bag ourselves a thief."

Though she was cheery on the outside, Yang had one thought in her mind, and that was confronting Goku after this was all over.

"Guess you guys are gonna go mess with the White Fang again, huh? Well, sign me up cause I'm definitely in!" A sudden voice chimed in out of nowhere.

All the members of the team RWBY turned toward the window, finding Sun hanging upside down with his tail hooking to a branch of a tree.

The instant Ruby's eyes met with Sun's, one thought was swimming in her head.

No, it wasn't how he escaped from the sailors who were chasing him for being a stowaway.

It wasn't the fact that he had fought together with Blake against Roman at the dock.

It certainly wasn't how he burst down the door, acting like a cop when he and her other teammates came to save her and Goku at the warehouse. She was unconscious when that happened after all.

It was the embarrassing event that transpired today and even after it was over, she still couldn't ever forget it no matter how hard she tried.

Never had one Ruby Rose wished she had some sort of memory eraser to help her forget about what happened at the cafeteria earlier.

Alas, it was not to be, thus her response was what one would expect of her.

"WARGHHH! THE IMAGE. CAN'T UNSEE!" Ruby yelled out as she covered both her eyes in embarrassment.

She wasn't the only one as Ruby's response also made the other three members of team RWBY to recollect back to what occurred, their cheeks reddening as a result.

Quickly realizing what was going on, Sun swung himself forward as he jumped into the room, only to roll off the ground and finally stand up straight as he placed his hands firmly against another.

"I'm sorry for everything that happened today, me and the guys really really didn't meant for that happen, at all!" Sun emphasized the last part, wanting to clarify to the girls that they were innocent, at least as innocent as they could be in this situation.

Nonetheless, he meant every word he said.

The girls looked to one another, each wanting to see their respective responses.

"That's fine. We have more important things to take care of don't we?" Blake hinted, knowing that every one of them would understand what she was trying to convey, even Sun.

"Yeah...about that, I was kinda wondering if me and my friend could come along with you guys?" Sun asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry Sun, but if we can, we won't involve our friends into this," Ruby answered, denying his request.

"That's dumb. You guys are facing the White Fang of all things; you'll need all the help you can get. Plus, think of it as an apology gift for earlier," Sun argued.

"I don't know..." Ruby murmured.

"Why not?" Weiss suddenly voiced out, surprising everyone in the room.

"I say let him, I see no reason not to, though I'm a bit worried that we might get into trouble," Weiss explained as she turned towards to the door of their room.

Sun stared at Weiss, wide-eyed.

"Ice queen..."

"If possible, please refrain from calling me that. We are acquaintances now after all."

"Come on Weiss, you know we call you that because we're friends," Yang replied happily.

The nickname Ice Queen was something that they used fondly for the heiress, and for teasing her, of course.

Weiss simply huffed as she turned the knob of the door, opening it.

The moment the door was opened however, she was greeted by the sight of Neptune standing just a hair breath away from the heiress.

Realizing the proximity, Weiss could feel her cheeks burning before she reined it in and stared coldly at the person before her.

Noticing the icy glare, Neptune found it best to at least announce himself in this situation, though he found Weiss's attitude welcoming, oddly enough.

"Umm, hi?"

"This is Neptune, he's with me," Sun introduced to them.

"We can tell, judging from earlier," Blake remarked.

Sun laughed nervously before he continued on.

"Anyway, he's gonna come with us, if you guys don't mind," Sun said as his gaze was on Ruby, so was everyone else.

Confused by the sudden attention, Ruby fidgeted as she spoke, "Why are you guys all staring at me so weirdly like that!?"

"Of course we are! You're the leader of this team remember? That means you still make the last call in the end," Weiss reprimanded, stating the obvious to everyone sans Ruby.

The young Rose thought hard on this.

On one hand, if they brought along Sun and Neptune, it would certainly be much easier if they actually face off with the White Fang.

On the other hand, she would be exposing them to danger. Sure, she was bringing her entire team along but that was because Blake was involved, and as a team, it was expected they were as well.

Then again, Sun was involved that day as well since he was with Blake at the docks. Maybe he felt responsible for Blake?

Was it because of that?

Ruby looked Blake in the eye, wanting to see if there was a hint of some sort.

Sadly, there was none as Blake looked as impassive as ever.

She then turned her attention towards Sun, who was looking very determined, perhaps even enthusiastically so.

She couldn't understand anything at all. She was always so slow on the uptake when it came to relationships between people. Maybe if she just looked at them one—

"Ouch!" Ruby yelled out in pain as she rubbed the sore spot on her head.

"Jeez sis, you don't have to think that hard. Just give a yes or a no," Yang lectured, seeing as it looked like her younger sibling was frying her brains from thinking too much.

"Hmmm...alright then," Ruby said as she outstretched her left arm towards Sun, somewhat confusing the faunus.

"You guys can come with us no problem...but you're not going to get off this crazy ride with team RWBY once you're in you got that?"

Sun's initial confusion quickly turned into one of delight as he gripped Ruby's hand with his owns'.

"You bet we're in, right Neptune?" Sun asked as his eyes focused on his partner.

Neptune merely gave a thumbs-up in response, giving his approval.

"Alright then, let's head out!" Ruby announced as she let go of her grip on Sun before she blitzed out of the room at the speed of sound, spinning Neptune in place as he was still standing at the door, causing him to fall from the dizziness.

"That dunce, does she even know where she's going?"

Weiss noticed Neptune and decided to lend a hand as she offered a hand to help get him up.

"Apologies about my partner, Neptune was it? I hope we can work well for this particular occasion."

Neptune accepted the gesture as he got hoisted up.

"I really can't see why my partner calls you ice queen. If anything, you look more like a snow angel to me," Neptune praised once he was back on his feet.

He couldn't help it. Weiss just seemed so calm, cool and...pretty if he were to put into words.

Weiss huffed as she turned away from him, making Neptune disappointed by her reaction.

To the others still in the room however, it was plain to see that Weiss's cheeks were much redder than before, mainly because of Neptune.

Sun and Yang let out a mischievous grin. They were definitely going to make use of this little detail once they're done with their business with the White Fang.

Only Blake ignored what was going on around her. Instead, she was looking at the document that Yang had taken.

Hopefully, when they meet the criminal, everything would go as smooth as plan.

* * *

For Ruby Rose, running at high speeds had a lot of perks. For one, you were the fastest thing in the room and no one could possibly keep up with you.

But the downsides were when you hit something or someone, it really hurt a lot, even with aura activated, though usually nothing serious.

That was exactly what Ruby felt as she crashed into someone in the hallway.

Upon impact, Ruby and her apparent victim fell down on the floor, with Ruby on top of the person she slammed into.

Ruby slowly opened her eyes once more, now face-to-face with a girl around her friends' age, along with two others who were fortunate enough not be caught by her tackle.

"Would you mind getting off me now?" The green-haired girl on the floor asked, wanting the redhead to get off her.

"Argh...uh...sure..." Ruby stuttered as she complied.

Once the two were both on their feet, Ruby felt it best to apologize.

"Sorry about that, guess I don't know my own speed..."

"Don't worry about it. It happens," the green-haired girl said as she dusted off her clothes.

"Heh, who knew you of all people got hit like that, eh Emerald?" The silvered hair guy standing among them quipped.

"Everyone has accidents, right Mercury?" the girl now known as Emerald questioned back, a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

It took a while but Ruby finally registered in her mind there was in fact three people with her right now.

"Now now, you two…it would be rude to not introduce ourselves," the third person amongst them said.

"Hello there, my name is Cinder. I'm sure I don't need to introduce my two compatriots considering you heard of their names earlier," Cinder said, a smile on her face.

"Yeah...oh right, just call me Ruby! I've never seen you guys before, you must be new right?"

"Yes. We're just visiting from Haven," she stated simply.

"Oh, so you're here for the festival then?" Ruby asked, curious.

The festival, or more specifically the Vytal Festival, was an event that was held every two years.

It was a celebration of the various cultures in Remnant. There would be dances, parades and more importantly to Ruby, a combat tournament.

A tournament that was held between teams from every academy in Remnant, and the young leader of team RWBY was determined to enter in said tournament with her owns'.

It was definitely going to be a memorable experience to her so she had been looking forward to it ever since they entered Beacon.

"Though I think you guys might be in the wrong place? The dormitories for exchange students are the opposite direction of here..."

"Oh is it? I suppose we've took a wrong turn then."

"Hey, it happens. Oh! I've got somewhere to go, hope you guys have a good stay at Beacon!"

With that, the young girl zipped across the hallway again, until she was no longer visible to them.

"I wonder where Ruby is going? She seemed like she was in a hurry," Goku said, suddenly appearing behind them.

"And who might you be?" Cinder asked calmly.

The other two were not surprised either. They were only gazing at the faunus intently, more so in the case of Mercury as he was clenching his own fists, as if at any moment, he was prepared to lash out at the faunus.

A detail that Emerald couldn't help but take notice as she knew he was usually much more laid back and collected than this. It almost seemed like Mercury knew the faunus personally, even though he had never shown it until this point. Maybe because this was their first time meeting him in person?

"Hi, I'm Goku," the faunus casually introduced himself, not noticing the current atmosphere.

"I see. Well, I'm sure you know ours names already."

Goku scratched the back of his head awkwardly, laughing nervously as he realized that he got caught peeking at them earlier.

He couldn't help it as he got curious of Ruby talking with their new guests. There was something...irking him about them, he just couldn't quite place it. The one he was talking to right now smell kinda familiar but he didn't know why.

"It's no problem. And mayhap if I can ask what do you do here? You don't seem like a student here, judging from the way you dress."

"Oh. I'm a school guard here, though I don't really feel like I'm doing my job properly," Goku explained cheerfully, not a hint of remorse in his words.

"Don't be like that. I'm sure you've done your job just fine," Cinder jested.

"Well, there was that one time I guess..."

He was still disappointed that he never got to finish that fight but at the time, ensuring Ruby's safety was much more of concern to him. Still, it was a shame considering how strong his opponent was.

"My, you must be very strong then," Cinder complimented.

"Not really, but that person I fought that day was really strong! Though I never got why they came here in the middle of the night, they even tried to take my dragon ball for some weird reason."

It was still strange to him. Why would anyone come to a school like that? It wasn't like there was anything worth stealing in the school as far as he was concerned...

That certainly garnered the threes' attention, especially Cinder's judging by her reaction.

"Oh? Perhaps you should tell me more," Cinder urged, despite knowing what the faunus was describing.

"Nah. You'll probably find it boring...but I can tell you about the dragon balls," Goku answered before he started shifting through his poach around his waist.

Emerald was intrigued, as she did remember Cinder mentioned about it a few times, though never explaining what it was. Considering how much value Cinder had put on it, this seemed like the chance to understand more about it.

Mercury couldn't care less for what the martial artist would be presenting. He'd rather be anywhere right now than here if he was ever given the chance, sadly he couldn't.

"Here ya go!" Goku presented the spherical object with glee.

"The glowing one-star ball coated in orange is nice and all but what's so special about it?" Emerald blurted out, before quickly realizing her mistake as Cinder gave her a stern look, possibly for speaking out of turn.

"Well, there's not just one you know? There's seven of them altogether all scattered around the world!"

Cinder smirked at that, if only the security guard knew.

"So? I'm sure anyone can 'find' them in an antique shop or something like that, I mean, it's not that special," Emerald pointed out.

If she was already in trouble, she might as well find out as much as she could.

"It's not just that you know? If you collect all seven of them, you get to have a wish!" Goku stated excitedly.

Honestly, Goku didn't have much use for the wish, he was always more excited at the prospect of adventure from trying to gather them all. Too bad even with him travelling around the world for the past years, he only ever managed to find one, which was the one he was currently holding in his hand. Still, he can't say he didn't have a blast travelling.

"...and what makes you think this thing even works?"

Emerald was skeptical, to say the least. She would have given a sarcastic remark about it but given that Cinder was standing just beside her and she was in hot water already, Emerald instead chose to withdraw her original comment.

"Well, I don't. It's not like I have all the dragon balls...but I do believe in it, that you can definitely get a wish."

It was a particular case for Goku when it came to the dragon balls. Perhaps it was because he had held on to one of them for so long, he held the belief that a wish can be made by gathering them altogether. Plus, it was a memento from his grandpa, and since he was the one who told him of it, there was just no way he couldn't believe in it, no matter how nonsensical it was whenever people told him.

"That's certainly interesting...but what if the legend was real? Then what would you wish for?" Cinder asked.

Perhaps he would have the same ideal as her considering his constant need for battle.

"I don't think I need anything from it. It's more fun trying to find them all after all," Goku said as he laughed it off, putting the dragon ball back in his pouch.

Or perhaps not.

"Well now. It was pleasant talking with you Goku but unfortunately, we have to be off now. We have somewhere else we need to attend to," Cinder politely said, wanting to end the conversation right here.

"Oh, okay but are you sure he's alright? He hasn't even talked even once," Goku said, pointing towards Mercury.

Now that the martial artist had gotten a better look, Mercury resembled someone vaguely similar that he saw in the past.

The only response Goku got from said person was a silent glare.

"Don't bother with him. He's just...a bit more moody than usual," Emerald explained for her partner's current behaviour.

Goku nodded in understanding before they left, leaving him all alone in the hallway as he tried to remember where he was actually going before stumbling upon their conversation.

* * *

"Emerald, what was that earlier? I do not recall giving you the permission to speak out of turn," Cinder calmly stated, the three now in their dormitory at Beacon.

"I'm sorry, it's just I was curious about those so called dragon balls and asking you would be rude so..." Emerald stated back, trying to defend herself.

Cinder took one look at Emerald in the eyes, and could see that the girl was at least sincere in her answer. However, if she were to ever start questioning her decisions, then there would be… problems.

"Very well, perhaps I could tell you about them in another time. Next time however, do not disobey me. I rather not have incompetent subordinates that do not follow my orders when given," she said, a hint of rage in her voice.

"Yes ma'am," Emerald answered obediently, her head hung low.

"Speaking of which..." Cinder continued as she turned her attention from Emerald to Mercury, who was smirking towards her, a contrast from before.

"Mercury, I hope you would not act so...childish the next you meet him," she warned.

"Sorry but no way," Mercury said, disobeying his superior.

"...and why not?" Cinder didn't like this, she didn't like when she had no control, especially something or someone under her.

"Nothing you need to be concerned of. Don't worry, it won't compromise anything the plan, but if I ever see him this close again? Don't be shocked when I give him a little 'surprise'," Mercury stated simply, an arrogant smirk plastered on his face.

Cinder supposed that was the best she could get out of him, not that the backstory between them was needed. As long as he was still following orders, then there was no possible way anyone could stop their objective.

"By the way, do you think everything tonight is going to be handled alright? We all can see where small little Ruby would go, along with her little gang..." Mercury reminded them.

It was easily discernable from the way Ruby acted that she was rushing to go somewhere, somewhere people should not know of.

That easily led to them that the little redhead was looking for Roman, probably for information on the White Fang.

That would mean that they might go 'there'.

"I'll just notify our 'associate'. I'm sure she would be delighted if they happened to pop up there."

The two knew who Cinder was referring to, each sporting a smirk knowing that if Ruby and gang happened to come across her, they would have little chance at victory, especially considering her behaviour as of late.

* * *

At the sound of the knob turning at his door, Ozpin decided to welcome his new guest that was paying him a visit.

Two individuals came into his workplace. One of the individuals turned out to be Glynda, leading their guest, or should he say old friend in.

James Ironwood was his name. He was a man who had black tidy hair, but silver and white on the sides of his head that showed his age. The part where people would find unusual at first glance was the strip of metal above his right eyebrow, though Ozpin and Glynda clearly knew the story behind it.

His attire consisted of a white overcoat, with a red necktie tucking under it. His pants also was of the same colour as his overcoat, with silver boots and a right-handed, completing his appearance.

"Ah James, so nice to see you pay a visit to Beacon… Glynda, if you don't mind, please fetch Goku here. It seems he had forgotten that I had called for him earlier," Ozpin chuckled, visualizing on how exactly did that martial artist forgot the announcement so quickly.

Glynda merely nodded in response as she took her leave, leaving the two men alone.

With Glynda gone, Ironwood took a seat before he continued his conversation with Ozpin.

"Same could be said to you, Ozpin but we all know that's not why I'm here. However, we'll talk of that later. At least for right now, I am just a friend wanting to talk."

"Yes...and as your friend, I have worries concerning the situation outside," Ozpin stated, calmness in his tone.

Ironwood stared through the window before letting out a satisfying smile on his face.

"Too much?"

"More than too much. James, for what possible reason did you bring this...fleet to my school? I want my students to feel safe, confident when they attend Beacon. Not like they're trapped and under watch like suspected convicts."

"Come now. I feel it's the opposite. When people look up to the sky, all they see is strength. Unyielding strength that makes them feel safe, which also in turn, makes our enemy feel that strength so that they withdraw from it," Ironwood proclaimed, lifting his right arm as he tighten his fist.

"For what would that serve? We are, after all in a time of peace, shows of power like this are not only unnecessary, it gives off the wrong impression," Ozpin explained calmly, sipping his tea as he did so.

"But if what Qrow said was true?"

Ah yes. That little message sent him regarding about 'her'. So this was one of the reasons James was worried? No, Ozpin could see it was combination of things, for now however...

"If it is true, we will handle it tactfully. Not this act of force with the number of soldiers closing in to quadruple digits. It's the Vytal Festival, a celebration of peace and unity. This is anything but."

Ironwood then slammed against the desk as he stood up in disagreement.

"Then what of the criminal Roman Torchwick? He's locked up in here of all places Oz! You've called me here specifically to take him in without anyone's notice!"

Ozpin didn't respond, only letting his old friend continue on.

"I understand a time and need for tact, but that is not what we need right now. How much can we do this in secret? Don't you think the enemy will see through it eventually?"

Neither moved after that, only a series of silent stares were exchanged between the two.

Suddenly, the door burst opened as a certain faunus walked in, disrupting their conversation.

"Heya Ozpin, what did you need me for again? Glynda didn't explain much when I asked, only calling me forgetful," Goku said before noticing the position they were in.

"Uh...are you guys going to fight or something? So am I supposed to stop it since I'm a security guard here?"

The martial artist was confused but deep down, he kinda wanted to fight Ozpin, even if just a little bit.

Ozpin smiled before he answered back to the monkey faunus.

"There is no need. And yes, if it would ever happen, you would need to step in and resolve it Goku."

Goku scratched his confusion as he walked in, until he was now standing beside Ironwood.

"James, this is Son Goku. As you've heard from earlier, he is a security guard here at Beacon," Ozpin said, introducing the faunus.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Son. I'm James Ironwood, a general of the Atlas military and the headmaster of the Atlas Academy as well," Ironwood proclaimed as he stuck out his left arm.

Noticing the gesture, Goku thought it best to return it as he shook the general's hand.

"So since you're the general and all that...are you here to take Roman in?" Goku asked, surprising Ironwood as he thought only a limited number of people know about that.

Ironwood then turned toward Ozpin, wanting to get an answer out of him.

"Ozpin! You told him?"

Ozpin was undeterred by this as he merely gave his response.

"Yes. He is part of the staff here; I see no reason for me to hide it from him."

"Is it only him?" Ironwood questioned further.

"Well, him and a very 'special' student, that's all."

Ironwood relaxed upon hearing the news. The lesser people knew about it, the better. Who knew what the media would think if they heard that an infamous thief was kept here of all places?

"So it's just me, the staff and Velvet? Does this mean Ruby and the others don't know about Roman being kept here?"

Ozpin simply smiled in response, which gave the martial artist the answer he needed. Goku had thought that Ruby had already been told of this considering she and the others were involved in it. The martial artist guessed wrong, he supposed.

It was also apparently a good idea he didn't tell Ozpin about Cardin then since it was a secret and all that.

Still, he didn't feel right keeping secrets from Ruby and Yang. He probably should tell them the next time they met.

No, he was definitely going to.

"Apologies about my rudeness earlier, can't be too cautious. And to answer your question, yes, I am here to take Roman Torchwick in."

"Oh. When you do, you mind not treating him too rough? He's not really that bad once you get to know him a bit."

Goku sincerely believed that. Sure, Roman was a criminal and all that but he really wasn't all too awful in Goku's eyes. Then again, the thief did try to escape that one time when they were all trapped down there...

Ironwood firmly shook his head, telling the faunus he was not going to let up, especially since it was Roman they were talking about.

"Darn, and I really thought that might work too," Goku said sincerely, laughing nervously as he did so.

Goku's naivety confounded Ironwood. Why would anyone defend a thief of all people?

Having observed long enough, Ozpin decided it was time to tell Goku his purpose for coming here today.

"Seems you two have bonded quite a bit; Now then, there's a reason why I called you here Goku," Ozpin said, catching Goku and even Ironwood's attention.

"You see...lately, there have been some problems arising in Mistral, quite serious as well judging from the situation. I'm planning on sending team CFVY over there to access the situation and help out as much as they can."

That name...it was the name of Velvet's team. However, it didn't made sense why he was needed for this.

"Then why am I going? I'm sure those four will do just fine!" Goku confidently proclaimed, knowing them personally.

Though he could called them his friends as they were the first people he met coming here as a security guard, but he would be lying if he said if he was close to them, except for Velvet of course.

"Unfortunately, Miss Scarlatina has fallen ill and is currently recovering in her room, thus impossible for this particular undertaking."

So that was why she wasn't there for training this morning. The faunus did think it was strange considering how she never missed even one day, even after the incident in the ruins. Then again, she has been more...fatigue lately with all those bags under her eyes.

"In place of her, I would like you to go with them instead, immediately after this talk is over."

"Eh? Are you sure?" Goku asked, wanting to confirm Ozpin's decision.

"There would be no better substitute. In fact, Miss Adel has already agreed to this arrangement. The only thing left is your agreement to this little venture," Ozpin explained, his face facing Goku's own.

"Sure," Goku stated simply.

If Coco allowed it, there was no reason why he should reject.

"Excellent. I'll inform Professor Port then, since he is the one who will be with you all for this. He'll also inform you of the details of your mission."

Goku nodded in understanding. This was going to be something tough he presumed, and probably going to take a while, which was more than he liked. Still, he couldn't say no to something like this.

Goku then bid the two goodbye as he left the room, leaving the two men alone once again.

"So you were betting on him as well. Tell me Oz, do you think your children are capable of taking on a full-blown war?"

There was no response from Ozpin, which disappointed the general greatly.

"I'll be going to retrieve Roman now, and I would certainly appreciate your guidance, Oz."

"Very well."

With that, the headmaster of Beacon stood up as he and Ironwood moved towards the door.

"If you really must know, James… it isn't about their capabilities; In fact, I have confidence in their tenacity to overcome adversity. However, I rather they don't have a part in this at all," Ozpin answered just before he slammed the door shut, leaving his office in complete silent with the absence of its owner.

* * *

Goku stood in front of the door in front of him, checking whether or not he had gotten the right location.

His suspicion didn't last as he saw a small stylish metal plate that was labeled CFVY on the door.

Yup, he was sure this was their room alright considering their leader's personality.

He never did visit team CFVY's room before now that he thought of it. Then again, he never needed to even when he was training with Velvet.

He knocked on the door, and waited for a response.

Unfortunately, the faunus didn't hear any sounds of footstep so he thought of another way, one he should have done in the first place.

* * *

Velvet was sure she heard a knock earlier on the door, but there was no sound after that, thus she disregarded it.

Perhaps she imagined it. It would make sense considering her poor condition at the moment.

She let out a tired sigh. How could she let this happen, and getting a fever at that...especially during this critical moment when they were told they had a mission today.

Once again, she let her team down.

Earlier, she had insisted to her leader Coco that she was able, but Coco didn't have any of that and simply told her to rest, confidently stating they could take on today's mission without her.

Ah, she really was unneeded wasn't she?

No, no...it can't be. Her teammates were one of the nicest people she had ever met; it was just her negative thoughts seeping in again.

But was she wrong? ...She really couldn't answer that.

Wanting to discard those thoughts, Velvet thought it would be best she continued resting as she closed her eyes once again.

But the moment she did, there was a sudden noise coming from the window.

She immediately opened her eyes again and upon doing so, locked eyes with another.

"Goku...?" She groggily muttered.

She wasn't sure. Perhaps she was still too feverish to tell.

"Yo!" Goku greeted her with his usual cheery disposition.

That voice and easygoing attitude...it was Goku alright.

"Wow, so this is you and the others' room huh?" Goku stated loudly as he observed the inside of the room.

It was a fairly nice room, much like the others he had seen. And like the others as well, this one had its own personality that set itself apart from the other ones.

The thing that grabbed his attention easily was the hammock that was hanging in mid-air.

Then there was the simple blanket and pillow that was laid out on the floor. Besides there was also a small bonsai tree placed there.

The only normal bed here was the double bunker bed that Velvet was current lying on, which was the lower one. Right next to it was a closet that Goku presumed belonged to all of them, though he had a sneaking suspicion that Coco's belonging occupied more than the other three.

However, the one that confused him the most was the items near Velvet's own bed. There were several pictures hanging up on the wall beside her bed, and the images in each one of them was something he was sure that he saw back in the ruins. There was also something that was of curiosity to him; the album folder that was placed at the bottom edge of her bed. From the looks of it, they were plenty of them as well with how stacked it was.

Still, he shouldn't focus on them too much, seeing as Velvet was the reason for this visit after all.

"Ya feeling any better Velvet?" Goku asked the bedridden girl.

"...A bit...but it'll probably still take a while for me to recover. Ah, but I'm glad you gave me a visit."

It was always nice to have a friend visit, doubly so as Goku had never once visited them before. Though, it was embarrassing by how he was observing the room earlier. Even more so since he now knew of the pictures hanging up on the wall just beside her bed...and the album.

"Hmmmm..." Goku muttered, staring at her intently.

"..Yes?" Velvet asked, as it was getting weird just being stared like that.

"How did you get sick in the first place Velvet? You were fine a few days ago, though you looked like you had more bags lately, especially yesterday!"

It really surprised him when he saw Velvet all tired, even slumping at times. What was even more miraculous was the fact she was still able to train with him yesterday, despite her condition. Even he wasn't sure he could have stuck through like that.

"Well...It was exactly because of that. According to the nurse, I've overworked myself," Velvet explained herself, coughing a bit after that.

Upon hearing her explanation, Goku's eyes trailed off to the pictures plastered on the wall, something Velvet picked up on despite her weak condition.

"Was it because of those?" Goku asked, wanting to confirm his theory.

"So even you can tell huh Goku?...I've recently been, as Coco would put it, 'obsessing' over those pictures ever since we've gotten back from the ruins."

She wasn't joking either. As far as she could tell, the pictures were what occupied her mind lately. The symbols, the characters in it, she wanted to understand what was being written there but she couldn't make heads or tails of it. She even took nights out just to continue trying to understand them.

...Now it made sense she turned out like this. She really should have been more careful with her own health.

Noticing Velvet's regretful expression, Goku thought it best he didn't say too much about it because the faunus knew that she usually put herself down too much, even he could tell and he wasn't the observant type either.

"Then did Oobleck find anything? That guy likes history and all since he always tells me about it," Goku asked, his hands placed at the back of head.

There was never a time Oobleck never tried to constantly drill his head about the history of Remnant in general. He did try to listen sincerely one time but he couldn't really understand it at all.

"...I completely forgot about that," Velvet admitted.

She could feel her cheeks flaring up, though she didn't know if it was of her mistake or because of her sick state at the moment.

"So even you forget sometimes huh? Hehe, you better be careful or you might end up as forgetful as I am," the faunus joked.

Velvet laughed lightly at that, before she coughed loudly several more times, reminding Goku once again that she was indeed ill.

"Goku, you looked like you have something you wanted to tell me, do you mind telling me?" she questioned.

"Hehe, so you could tell huh?" Goku answered, scratching his head nervously.

Goku stared straight right at her before he continued on.

"I have to tell ya that I'm going to go with Coco and the others to Mistral today."

"...I see."

It would make sense. Goku was the one who she usually trained with, even more so than her teammates nowadays so him being her substitute was reasonable, especially so considering how strong he was. Still, it stung a bit knowing she could be substituted like this.

No! She shouldn't think like this...despite thinking like that, she still felt a sense of relief that Goku would be the one accompanying them. Her worries of her teammates' safety washed away as she knew Goku would definitely protect them. She would know, having seen it herself.

"I hope you all make it back safely then. Mistral right now is not a safe place," she added, knowing the most recent incidents that have happened there.

"Don't worry, there's no way we can lose! But before that, I've got something to ask ya!"

This seemed familiar to her, but she had to ask just in case.

"...What is it, Goku?"

"If I'm going with Coco and the others, then you have to take my jobs as a security guard here!" Goku declared, shocking Velvet to her core.

"What!? I can't possibly replace you!"

It was unthinkable. Not only was it unrealistic since she was a student, but it was impossible for her to be a substitute; to boot, it was Goku of all people.

"Hehe, I say that but really, you've just gotta look after the vegetables I've been trying to grow. They might even be ready to be eaten once I get back," Goku further explained, not wanting the bunny faunus to misunderstand.

That...sounded much more reasonable. However, Velvet didn't know if she was still hallucinating or not, but she felt that Goku had something more to ask of her.

"Is that really all? Or is there something else?" Velvet asked weakly, her voice becoming ever softer.

"...No. I also wanted to ask you to look out for Ruby if you can."

That was certainly a surprise.

She had met with Ruby a few times already and from their conversations, she could tell the young Rose was a very energetic and enthusiastic person. Though young she was, she was just as capable as everyone else in combat.

Now why would Goku want her of all people to keep an eye on said capable person?

"Why Goku? I've met Ruby, she's very strong from what I've seen…so I see no reason to do something like this."

Goku hesitated for a bit, an expression that she had never seen him do, before he spoke again.

"Yeah, I know she's strong. In fact, I'm proud of seeing her getting so far in the time we didn't meet."

He never said it out loud until now, but he really was amazed by how much Ruby had grown, though he would really never say it to her since he felt weird thinking of it for some reason.

"It's just that I'm getting a bit worried about her, same for Yang and the others since they've recently been wandering off," Goku added.

The martial artist had a gut feeling that it was probably because of the White Fang. Scratch that, it was definitely because of that.

"Whenever I see Ruby wander off like that, it gives me this weird feeling that I can't explain."

Velvet had an idea to what Goku was feeling at the moment, even if the person himself couldn't understand it. Thus, she decided to ask the martial artist about it with a question of her own to see his reaction.

"I should ask then, do you treat her like family?" Velvet asked, wanting to get more out of him.

"Of course I do! The same could be said for Yang too but for some reason, I'm more worried about Ruby...I wonder why though?" Goku questioned, not getting it.

Velvet's eyes soften upon hearing Goku's reasoning. To her, it appeared that he hadn't realized that he treated the leader of team RWBY like a little sister.

"Goku...you know, you're acting like an older sibling right now. It's nice seeing you like this."

It really was, it was a nice contrast to the his usual cheerful demeanor.

"Older...sibling?"

"You know, like a big brother since you're worrying so much about it."

"A big brother huh?" Goku muttered, his mind wondering off somewhere.

It was…a strange thing for him to think about. All his life before meeting Ruby, Yang, Qrow, even Taiyang…he had never really interacted with anyone else beside his grandpa. So while he had treated them like family, he never thought of it like sibling relations when it came to Ruby or Yang since he never had any siblings of his own. So for someone to think of him as such, and for him to only now realize it…was strange to him, but…he couldn't really say it was a bad feeling, at the very least.

"...I'll do it," Velvet stated shortly, snapping the monkey faunus out of his trance.

"Huh?"

"I mean switching with you, once I'm better of course. I don't know how much I could help but I'll give it my all."

She had some hesitation about this, but it was more her lack of confidence being the problem more than anything else.

"Really Velvet!? That's great then...that means I got nothing to worry about!" Goku cheered happily, his smile ever so wide.

"Just make sure you, Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox all come back perfectly safe and sound."

"Leave it to me! Hope ya get better soon cause we'll be training even harder once I get back!"

However, Goku received no response as the bunny faunus was asleep once again, resting on her bed.

Seeing this, Goku's eyes wandered off to the photo album on her bed.

His curiosity got the better of him as he took a peek inside. The photos in it were images of other people, or other students more accurately. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Jaune...even he was in one of them!

What the monkey faunus found strange was that there was no picture of the photographer herself.

Not wanting to stick his nose into it more than he should, Goku placed the album where it originally was before turning towards the window as he stretched out both his arms.

"Alright then, guess I should go meet Coco and the others then."

With that declaration, Goku jumped off into the air, leaving Velvet to rest.


	24. A Gathering

"AWAAAH..." Sun yawned, his mouth opening as wide as he could doing so.

"Seriously man?" Neptune sarcastically asked, standing by his side.

The two were currently standing outside a certain room housing a known thief.

The reason why they were they in the first place? They were asked by team RWBY to stand guard there and warn them if anyone came by, which the two reluctantly accepted.

"Can you blame me? This is about as boring as seeing you trying to pick up girls," Sun remarked as he leaned on the wall.

"I prefer calling it an exchange of communication."

Truth be told, he really just wanted to look cool in front of them, though even he could tell that girls usually tolerated him at best.

"Yeah well, then what was up with you and ice queen?"

"...I have no idea what you're talking about," Neptune denied.

Neptune did admit it was pleasant conversing with Weiss earlier, however he wanted to learn more about her first before anything else, but he didn't know how much longer can he keep up his 'cool' act, he really didn't want to give a bad impression at the very least.

He would never admit it to Sun though, the guy would hound on him forever if he ever did. He could get back at the guy, seeing his partner's expressed interest in Blake but he wouldn't do that now, would he?

"Sure you don't buddy, sure you don't..."

* * *

"So nice to have visitors, you know? Though honestly, I was expecting Spike, not...you lot," the convict known as Roman Torchwick said out loud.

"Shut it. We're just here to ask you some things about the White Fang," Yang asked, irritation in her tone.

She wasn't exactly thrilled hearing the name Spike, even though she had never heard the thief called someone like that, she could take a good guess who exactly the thief was referring to.

"The White Fang eh? And what makes you think I would tell you anything about them?"

Blake immediately let out her blade, swinging it just until it was in contact with the thief's neck.

"Because if you don't, I can just cut you off right here," Blake threatened, her tone in complete seriousness.

"Blake! We can't do that!" Ruby cried out.

"Agreed. As huntsmen in training, we should not and cannot do something as unethical as this," Weiss added, stating her stance on the issue.

"See, even Red and the ice queen are disagreeing with you. Also, what makes you think you're capable of doing something like this?"

Blake tightened her grip on the blade as she glared at the thief even harder, which was to no effect seeing Roman was undeterred by it.

Having seen enough, Yang gently placed her right hand on the blade as she stared towards Blake.

"Blake, that's enough. If you do this—"

"I wasn't going to!" Blake countered back.

Of course she was bluffing; she was trying to scare Roman into telling them. And look how much that tactic helped...

"That's not the point. It's the way you're hinting it. Next time you say it's alright to hurt someone else like him, then it'll just starting building and building, eventually it might turn into something worse. What then huh? That just makes us no better than him."

Blake considered it for a moment. She wanted to say that dealing with criminals like that never worked...but she couldn't. If she, a faunus did something like this, would that not prove those people who condemned the faunus in general right? She was trying to rectify it, not make it worse.

She had already run away from her problems last time. If she herself were to act like some deranged madman like 'him', then she'll never ever be able to convince the White Fang or the faunus of anything; she wouldn't even be able to convince herself. What would be the point if she just proved people right that faunus were a danger in general?

Blake closed her eyes in resignation as she withdrew her blade, which drew a breath of relief from all three of them.

"Are you done now? You teens and your drama are not exactly how I want to spend my afternoon," Roman said in a mocking tone.

Ruby then suddenly walked towards him as she squatted down to his level, the two exchanging glances.

"Hey Roman, can't you just tell us what their plans are?" Ruby pleaded.

Blake was astonished by this, there was no way something as simple as that would work!

Before she called Ruby out however, Weiss quickly covered her mouth as the heiress gave a silent glance, telling her they should give their leader a chance.

Blake nodded in understanding before Weiss released her hold, the three now observing the scene before them.

"And why would I do that? How would that benefit me in any form or way? The way I see it, whether I tell you or not makes no difference."

It was true. The thief knew of Cinder's plan, or hints of it at least. If he was right, and he usually was, then it would mean that anyone opposing her would lose...badly. As much as he disliked that woman, he wanted to be on the winning side; the side that gets to live.

"If it's meaningless, then why don't you just tell us then?"

"I'll say it again Red, why should I? I have no reason to, and don't you dare say it's because you want to save people, you hero trite!"

Just the mere presence of Ruby Rose disgusted him, from her ignorant looks to her stupid morals.

"Alright fine, I won't! ...It's because we stopped you!"

All the others, even Roman was taken aback by what the redhead said.

"What?"

"Yup, that's right, you heard me! It's because we stopped you, then that meant we also beat you. So if the White Fang was up to something, then that means we'll just have to stop them, just like we did with you!" Ruby proclaimed fiercely, pumping her fist with vigor.

Yang mentally chuckled at that. That kind of response reminded her a bit of Goku. Perhaps he was rubbing off on her more than she thought. Well, the guy was always so straightforward, perhaps even to point of being infectious.

That's it. She decided that the next time she met him, she would definitely ask first more than anything else, he probably had a good reason for it. If he didn't, well he would be meeting another one of her world's famous fists. But she was confident in Goku after seeing Ruby acting like that earlier.

A chuckle could be heard after Ruby's proclamation, but seconds later it turned into a full blown laughter. It surprised team RWBY as the one who was laughing so loudly was the thief Roman Torchwick himself.

Seconds passed before his loud laughter dissipated into a one of snickers.

"Hah...that was a good one. And you honestly think I would help you just because of that?"

"Yes," Ruby stated firmly.

"...Sure then. I'll give you a hint."

"You're not...joking right? This isn't some criminal trick to escape?" Weiss asked, her eyebrows rose in suspicion.

"If it were, you would be the first one to fall for it ice queen since you're dumb enough to ask that kind of question," Roman stated flatly right to the heiress' face.

"Why I—" Weiss' words were incomprehensible sentences of mumbles upon hearing the thief's remarks.

Yang only lent a shoulder, trying to give a sense of comfort to the heiress.

Blake stepped forth as she wanted answers right now, they couldn't afford to waste more time than this. Who knew when the White Fang would act?

"Then what is it? What exactly are you and the White Fang working together for?"

All heads turned towards Roman, each equally wanting to hear what response the thief would give.

"Let's just say it's something bigger than both me and the White Fang combined."

"Isn't there anything else you can tell?" Blake desperately asked, wanting to get further answers.

"What? You think you're the only one in danger here? That person would have my hide if she ever hears me talking like this...then again, I never liked her anyway."

"Her? Is it that person I met when you escaped on the plane?"

This was something to consider for Ruby. If she could just find whoever that person was, then they would know what they were all planning...sadly, she couldn't remember much from that time as that person's upper area was shrouded in darkness.

"Oh no. Seems I misspoke...oh well, can't change the past am I right you nosy lot?" Roman spoke flatly, not fooling anyone.

"Anyway, since I'm oh so nice. I'm going to give you another hint. Where exactly do filthy animals mark their territories right here in the city of Vale? If you can find it, you'll get your answers, or at least as much as you could."

"And where exactly are we supposed to find this place?" Yang questioned, her hands on both of her hips.

"Ask the kitty. She knows, I'm sure..."

"What do you mean—"

Blake was cut off as the sudden noise of a ringtone popped up out of Weiss's skirt.

The heiress picked it up, tapping on the screen of the scroll to receive the call.

"Good afternoon Neptune...I see...very well then...we'll be counting on you two," Weiss said lastly before she ended the call.

"It seems Professor Ozpin and an unknown person is coming towards here right now as we speak...in fact, they are already outside," Weiss calmly stated, not losing her wits with this sudden revelation.

"Great. That means we're all going to get caught in a few seconds," Yang remarked.

"Not quite. Both Sun and Neptune are distracting them as much as they can right now, this should give us ample time to escape. Still...we best hurry out of here," Weiss suggested, glancing at their leader for suggestions, which the person in question was unaware of.

"I suppose this should be the time to end our little conversation, probably the last as well," Roman gleefully told the four, not caring about their current predicament.

Blake gnawed her teeth in frustration. If they only just had a bit more time, they could have...

No, it probably wouldn't have changed anything. This was as far as she could get out of the thief. Right now, she needed to focus on how they were going to escape. After that, it was to understand what the thief was referring to...

"So...anyone have any idea how to get out of here without getting caught by our headmaster?" Yang asked, wanting to hear suggestions.

Ruby crossed her arms as she tilted her head, putting her best thinking cap on. In order for them to escape, maybe she could carry her entire team and just run so fast that professor Ozpin would never notice them?

Ruby shook her head at the thought of it. There was no possible way she could do that, she was not nearly strong enough...but there had to be something, anything that could get them out of this situation!

"Maybe we can cause a...distraction?" Blake suggested to the three.

"That's it!" Ruby yelled as her index finger pointed towards Blake, her face filled with realization.

"What's...it?" Blake asked comprehensively, a bit shaken from Ruby's sudden outburst.

the other two also listened in, wanting to know what their leader was hinting at.

"Freezerburn!" Ruby announced excitedly.

"...and how exactly does that help with our current predicament right now?" Weiss asked skeptically, not fully understanding Ruby's plan.

"Geez Weiss, I was getting to that. You really should be more patient you know?" Ruby replied, wiggling her finger at the heiress.

Weiss shook her head in dismay, she would just have to go along with it, she surmised.

"Alright, so this is what I think we should do—"

The three merely listened to their leader's plan as Ruby explained to them on what to do while Roman simply sat there, wanting to have nothing to do them, which unfortunately for him that would not be the case in the next few minutes.

* * *

"So? Got any idea how to distract two adults so that the girls can get out without being noticed?" Neptune asked as he put the scroll back into his pants.

"Not a clue, but we gotta at least try, am I right?" Sun said, his back leaning on the wall of the building they were currently standing outside of.

"So, no plan like usual?" Neptune stated flat, looking at his partner.

"Pfft. We'll be fine, it's just talking to the guy that's basically the boss of this school and someone that might be as important as him, what can go wrong?" Sun stated, confident in their abilities.

"Everything, but hey, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't, right?"

Sun merely grin in response as the two removed themselves from their posts and started walking to Ozpin and Ironwood.

Noticing the two, Ozpin and Ironwood stopped in their tracks to greet the two.

"Hello there Professor...Ozpin and umm..." Sun trailed off, unsure what to call the one beside the headmaster of Beacon.

"James Ironwood. But the students back at Atlas usually call me general, so I would prefer you call me that."

Having gone through years of military training, James was proud to have a title as prestigious as such.

Neptune's eyes widen in realization after putting the pieces together. The blue headed teen inwardly panicked as he now knew that they were talking to the head of Beacon and Atlas Academy respectively.

One wrong move and this might turned out worse than he initially thought.

"Come now, young man. Don't be so nervous, I'm only a mere friend visiting, nothing else. Then again, why exactly are you parading yourself like this?"

Finally taking note of Sun's choice of clothing, the general felt it best he let out his disliking of it.

"Umm...it's comfortable?" Sun laughed awkwardly, scratching his head nervously.

Somehow, Sun knew he said the wrong things...and he was about to be proven right.

"Comfortable? Comfortable?! Young man, this is an establishment for learning. Rules and regulations are made for a reason! Perhaps you need some strict regimen to uphold a sense of decency. I certainly wouldn't mind spending some time doing just that."

Sun gulped. There were times when he was certainly called out for wearing his usual clothes but never was there a reaction like this.

Yup, he was definitely going to try not to be in the general's bad side after this.

"Come now James, everyone here is free to wear whatever of their choosing. Of course, the only exceptions are during class."

"Of course you would say that Oz. Unfortunately, I can't interfere since this is your school after all...that doesn't mean I'll stay silent about it."

"You never change, do you James?"

Sun and Neptune stared at the two headmasters, confused on what was going on.

"Now then, what exactly do you two want to talk with us about?" Ozpin asked, getting back to their purpose of meeting him and Ironwood.

"Uh yeah, about that...see, we were going to..." Sun slurred as he gazed at Neptune, wanting his partner to take in the reign.

"Right. We were hoping to ask about—"

KAAATCHKKK!

The sound of a gunshot pierced through the air, alerting all four of them.

The two headmasters immediately went into action as they rushed through the teens, not giving them a second glance as they left the two teens alone.

Neptune was frozen in place, not realizing what just happened.

"Well, come on! This isn't exactly what I called distracting them right now," Sun yelled as he slapped Neptune's back, snapping the blue headed teen out of his trance.

Neptune quickly followed after his leading as the two chased after the surprisingly fast speed the two headmasters were running at.

* * *

Ozpin and Ironwood dashed through the door that Roman resided, but was unable to see anything as the room was clouded in a thick mist, obscuring their view.

They could however, see a silhouette of a person in the middle of the room.

"While I can't see you, but I supposed the same goes for you as well, am I right gentlemen?" Roman taunted, despite not knowing who he was dealing with.

"Roman Torchwick!" Ironwood yelled out, enraged at the thief.

Ironwood wanted to run up towards the thief but he knew that not only was that stupid, it was also incredibly dangerous.

Ozpin, on the hand, was observing the surroundings, trying to get a bearing of the situation. It just didn't seem quite right to him. It was simply illogical that the thief had any sort of traps prepared, let alone launching this particular mist around them. Even if he did, the fact that Roman had not escaped was proof enough to Ozpin that this was simply a ruse.

For what reason, he simply had no idea.

As time passed, the mist around them slowly dissipated into nothingness...until it was visible for both parties.

"Now that I got a good look, isn't this the infamous general of Atlas? If have to guess, you're the one who's going to lock me up?"

There was no verbal response from the general. He was only giving the thief a stern stare, not letting him out of sight.

"Silent, aren't we? I guess you liked the little show I just gave?"

"Don't toy with me," Ironwood said in a low voice.

"And how could I possibly do that, pray tell?"

Ironwood didn't answer him, only continuing to stay silent until one other person in the room decided to interject.

"Regardless, I suppose you know what is about to happen."

Roman turned sideways before continuing once again.

"...So I was right. Well then, lock me up. I certainly hope you won't be too rough on a little criminal like me..." Roman mocked, his eyes rolling until he spotted the cracks up on the wall.

It seemed like those idiotic girls somehow did it, though he certainly hoped he never meet any of them again, especially Red.

"You and I both know that isn't going to happen," Ironwood retorted, his face as stern as ever.

He didn't know if this stupid gamble would pay off or not. He only did it because he saw the smallest...dimmest of hope when that naive Red talked to him like that. It sounded like something Spike would say.

Perhaps it was insane, perhaps it was even foolish of him to actually hope, especially after all of the things he's seen but he was willing to bet on that single dim light...no, perhaps there was two of them.

Even if it was pointless, what else did he have to lose?

Thus, the thief merely smirked like a madman upon the train of thought he just had.

* * *

Sun and Neptune stood in the post they were once again, only this time they were facing towards the door, trying to take a peek to what was going on.

Having not heard of anything from inside for a while now, the two shared a look and nodded to each other, signaling that they were about to just rush into the building.

Just as they decided that however, the door burst opened, the brunt of the door slamming on both the boys' faces before they fell down on the grounds, their head dizzy from the impact.

"What are you guys doing?! Nevermind, we gotta get outta here now!" the familiar voice of Ruby yelled out before she started running again, followed by her teammates.

Having recovered from the sudden headache, Sun and Neptune did just that as they got up and chased after them, not questioning them on what just happened...for now.

There was no way they were not curious on how the girls escape, it was only in their nature after all.

* * *

"So...that's as much as you can get from that guy huh?" Sun asked, both his hands behind his back as he wagged his tail in curiosity.

After team RWBY had successfully escaped without being noticed, they were currently back in their own room to reassess their next course of action.

"Yup, though Roman did give us a hint but...from the looks of it, it seemed like something only Blake knows," Ruby explained as her eyes focused on Blake, as did the others as well.

Blake ignored the stares as she was in a state of deep thought, recalling the words the thief left her and the others.

Like a bolt out of nowhere, it finally came to her.

"I got it."

"Seriously, just like that?" Sun questioned, rising his eyebrows.

"Yes. Perhaps you don't believe me?" Blake responded, glaring at the monkey faunus.

"Nope, just trying to make sure."

"So when exactly are we going?" Yang smirked confidently, cracking her knuckles in anticipation.

"Tonight. But not all of us are going...at least not conventionally."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Weiss was not exactly following her teammate, though it was understandable given the vague answers given by Blake.

"Well..."

* * *

Son Goku wasn't exactly the most comfortable in his working outfit.

Yes, the security guard knew that he should be used to it by now, even if it was the only second time wearing it but he couldn't.

Sure, it certainly looked 'professional' as Glynda put it but he certainly preferred his usual gi more. He didn't hate his working uniform. In fact, he liked it quite a bit, it just wasn't his usual outfit, something he had grown quite fond of over the years.

Oh well. Perhaps he would get used to it the more times he was involved in these mission. It at least felt better than the first time around he wore it.

Right now, he was walking in the streets of the main avenue. His destination was obvious as wide off in the distance, there was a bullhead situated there, with a certain individual waiting for him just in front of it.

The person waiting for him was a teenage girl, who had a slim physique judging from her body frame. What was instantly recognizable about her was her whole attire.

From the long, cocoa-colored shirt, with a dark waist cincher attached to the long, dark trousers and the brown belt in the middle, which was covered by another set of belts that had the same colour scheme as her outfit. At the bottom of it were a pair of dark brown high-heel boots, what was also easily discernable about the individual was the dark brown beret atop her head and the pair of sunglasses she adorned, along with the small handbag she carried around.

To top it all off, the girl wore a plethora of accessories, ranging from bracelets to gloves and finally a stylish necklace right around her neck.

"What took you so long?" the girl asked coolly until she finally noticed Goku's attire.

"Oh? You actually wore that? That's good. Now if we can only do something about your hair..." she remarked, looking down at the faunus's hair.

"Ehh, no way Coco. The last time you did that it wasn't very fun for me at all."

The martial artist still had a particular distaste of that moment but he was grateful that his hair stayed like that no matter what Coco tried on him.

"I'm just kidding around. Come on, Professor Port and the others are already waiting inside our transport to Mistral," she beckoned the monkey faunus as she started walking.

Before Goku followed after her, he decided to take one last look at Beacon before leaving.

There were...a lot of things racing in his mind but nothing came out of his mouth, only his eyes showing determination as he continued to stare off into the wind.

With that, he turned around and followed after Coco.

* * *

"So this is where the White Fang usually gathered huh? Not exactly the comfiest of places," Sun remarked, his right hand above his brows as he looked inside the building he was in from top to bottom.

"Well...when you're an organization in hiding, a clean and pristine is not what exactly helps being discreet," Blake retorted back.

"Point; but what's with the mask though? Why hide who you are when you think you're in the right?" Sun questioned, feeling the mask he was holding in his left hands.

"...to be a symbol of what humans fear."

"The Grimm, hence the Grimm masks...anyway, you think the others will be okay?" Sun whispered, his volume just low enough that no one nearby except Blake was able to discern it.

"They'll be fine. I already gave them a location for hiding, didn't I?"

"Right...let's just hope we don't get caught pretending be a new member… It's probably going be for something even dumber than that isn't it?"

Blake didn't even give him a response as she simply put on the Grimm mask, going ahead without him, her blade on her back.

Sun let out a sigh as he followed suit, but just before he did, something suddenly came up in his mind.

He couldn't quite place it but he felt like he needed to remind Blake of something, something he was unsure of.

Well, it couldn't be something important right?

* * *

Right above the two, the rest of the gang were currently crammed together in the ceiling vent, just directly above a stage that looked to be where the announcements would be held.

Judging from the crowded number of faunus just directly below them, they surmised that this was where the main event would take place tonight.

However, they weren't in the most comfortable of places.

The ceiling vent they were in was very spacious, but that didn't mean it could fit them altogether. The only way they were able to because each of them were holding onto the inside of the wall, their hands and legs supporting them from falling.

In hindsight, it was not the best place for spying seeing how hard it was just to even remained still.

Still, someway somehow all of them were still able to get a good eye on what was going on.

"So this is where the members of the White Fang gathered huh?" Yang muttered out loud, surprised by the amount of faunus below.

"Remember Yang, we're not here to have a brawl breakout. We're just here to get what we need," Weiss stated, reminding the blonde.

"And that is?" Yang asked quizzically.

"To gain information on the White Fang's next move...or what Torchwick said, someone even higher than both of them."

"Yeah yeah, I got it...but if something actually happens to the both of them down there..."

"Then we're definitely stepping in," Neptune answered, a tone of certainty in his voice.

All of them nodded to each other in agreement, sans Ruby who had her eyes focused solely only on what was down below.

* * *

Sun and Blake stared at the small stage before them, perplexed at the sheet that seemed to be covering something. What it could possibly the two had no idea.

Their confusion had to wait as one member of the White Fang came onto the stage, a small device in hand.

The faunus that weren't in uniforms were curious, wanting to know what was about to occur.

Then and there, a small bluish light shone upward and an image suddenly came out of it.

It was the hologram of a man.

Although the blue hue had hindered somewhat what he looked like, it was still relatively easy to discern his features.

His red hair that spiked backwards, with the mask that obscures his vision and his upper face, the small black horns on each side of his head and finally, the black trench coat that he was wearing…

"Presenting a highly esteemed member of the White Fang, Adam Taurus!"

Cheers broke out, loud enough to envelope the whole building they were in as it felt like the number of people that have gathered had suddenly spiked up.

"Adam Taurus? Hey Blake, you know who that is?" Sun whispered into her ears under the loud commotion.

Blake was unable to respond to him, seeing as her mind was swimming in every direction, not knowing where she could even start knowing that 'he' of all people was here, and an image right in front of her at that! She could feel her entire body shaking in fear, cold sweat protruding off of her as she still couldn't process what was going. Only one thing came out of the ex-member of the White Fang.

"Adam..."

"Blake, are you—"

Sun was cut off as Adam finally began, the crowd silencing themselves as each one of them wanted to hear from him.

"Thank you my fellow brothers and sisters. Now, before we start I would like to introduce one of our collaborators, she will be joining us tonight."

From behind the sheet of clothing, a young woman suddenly came into view, instantly catching the faunus's attention.

She was a person of small stature but she wasn't lacking in distinction. The colour of hair was very much split into two in the middle, the right pink and the left being brown.

Her attire also complemented her well, with the white jacket having pink interiors in it, the black corset connecting to her brown pants and the black and white boots with high heels.

The woman also held an umbrella in her right hand, holding it upward before she gave a simple bow to the faunus in front of her.

Their reactions were not the greatest.

Boos, slanders, curses...every one of them were spouted repeatedly by the faunus as they couldn't stand seeing a human being amongst them, especially during a night like this.

"My brethren, I understand how you feel having a human here. However, she is of great importance to the cause of the White Fang!"

The faunus quieted down, muttering to each other as they now questioned Adam's authority.

Adam was not perturbed by this. He knew exactly how this would go down, that he was sure of.

"This human here and her cohorts...will provide us with the state of the art technology from Atlas. This will provide us the firepower to fight back right at humanity and make them succumb to us!"

One of the members suddenly called out to the red-headed man, getting his full attention.

"But why should we have humans help to achieve this? Aren't we all fine on our own?"

Adam expected this, he could never believe that the faunus would join him in his reasoning this easily. However...

"Why? We're above them and that's why we're using them. In fact, I'm here because our 'partners' needed me to convince you all my brothers and sisters."

Another member in the crowd stepped out, letting out a question to him.

"We respect you Adam but what about that human over there? How would we know she would not betray us?" A member of the white fang accused, pointing towards her.

The woman didn't let out a sound as she simply turned back from them, which irritated all of them.

That was, before she uncovered what was under the sheet that had been strangely placed in the middle of the stage.

Finally bare for all to see, it silenced all of them of what was before them.

It was man; a regular human that had been strapped onto a chair. He was also blindfolded, unable to see what was going on. That didn't mean he couldn't hear what was going on however, as seen by the fact he was trying to wiggle his way out of this bind. Sadly, it was to no effect as he heard the sound of footsteps coming ever closer to him.

With one fell swoop, the woman swung her umbrella down on the man, dislocating his shoulder as she heard the sound of the man's bones breaking.

The straggled man fell down, squirming in pain but unable to let it all out. The woman however didn't care, as she simply continued on, releasing a barrage of assault and with every hit, the man twitched uncontrollably from the constant pain.

This instantly stunned everyone. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Sun clicked his tongue in anger. He wanted to just jump onto the stage and stopped this display of cruelty but he knew it wouldn't end well. Plus, with Blake's current state...

Sun took another glance at Blake and as expected, she was still in the same dazed state.

There was no way he could leave her like this. Whoever this Adam was, the monkey faunus wanted to deck him right in the face if they ever met face-to-face for making someone as collected as Blake to act like this.

* * *

Ruby gritted her teeth in frustration, witnessing the display before her.

How could anyone be so cruel? Why would anyone even do so in the first point? Try as she might, she just couldn't understand.

Noticing her leader's expression, Weiss thought it best to advise Ruby as the possibility of Ruby just running off on her own were high. Yes, the heiress was disgusted by the sight as well but rushing in would only make things worse.

"Ruby, I understand you want to help but doing so endangers all of us."

"I...know..."

The young leader knew that she wasn't alone anymore, thus she couldn't be reckless. Whatever her actions were they would affect the whole team. Last time she did that, she had been easily caught by Roman. The only reason she escaped was because Goku arrived and saved her. She couldn't afford to make the same mistakes again, could she?

"I know this is especially hard on you Rubes, what with how you're like but I don't think he'll die, he's just there to make a point," Yang said grimly, not liking the situation as well.

"But what if it isn't?! What happens then?"

Yang and Weiss couldn't answer her, they didn't know how to.

"I agree, I don't think it will come to that."

The three blinked profusely as they turned towards Neptune.

"While I'm sure they have a way of hiding people's death behind some ridiculous cover-up story. I don't think it would make a good impression. I mean, they are recruiting new members tonight so I'm sure not all of them even want to kill the guy in the first place. If that woman actually did do it, it would have the opposite effect instead," Neptune coolly reasoned.

Inwardly, he was anxious since he just defaulted to his most natural attitude. This wasn't the usual cool facade that he tried to give off, this was him trying to reason himself and everyone else so that he could calm himself down.

"That was...rather analytical of you Neptune," Weiss remarked.

The heiress was impressed however. From the snippets of conversation she had with him, she had the faintest idea that Neptune had more to show than he initially did but was never really confirmed until now. She was secretly glad he was actually showing his true nature, though she didn't mind the image he had up until now, it was...nice to see someone try so hard for something they wanted.

"I guess..." Ruby muttered, a bit convinced by his reasoning.

The other three let out a relieved sigh, knowing that she wouldn't go off on her own.

That didn't mean they liked the situation down below though but they steeled themselves as the relentless assaults continued on.

* * *

The faunus were silent, taking in what they just saw.

The strangled man was flat on the floor, unmoving. Some of the faunus in the crowd backed away in terror, hints of regrets from the looks of it.

The woman however, ignored him as she simply flicked her umbrella into the air, the blood splattered on the ground as a result before she opened it up again and greeted her audience with an eerily innocent smile.

Snapping out of their trance, there was a mix of reactions to say the least.

Some were afraid of her, some worried for the man's condition but for the majority of the faunus, they cheered passionately towards the woman, acknowledging her as someone that supported their cause.

Adam was smiling from ear to ear, pleased that the plan went without any sort of hitch. Of course, he could catch glimpses of some of them with expression of doubts but it matter not, they'll come to soon enough.

"Sadly, that is all for today. For our next operation, however we shall discuss this on our next meeting but I can tell you a small preview of what's to come; Imagine what just happened to that human just now, only thousand folds from before...and all of it shall happen because of a certain tumble. We shall meet again the next time, preferably in person," Adam emphasized as he laid out his message.

With that, Adam was gone as his hologram disappeared into the air but that didn't stop the members of the White Fang who applauded the high ranking member of their organization.

While they kept on clapping and cheering, Blake was still visibly stunned as she was standing on the same place, her thought processes still not catching up to reality.

Seeing this, Sun placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to give her support.

It was sadly of to no effect as it looked like Blake was in a difference place, ignoring everyone and everything around her.

The White Fang member that had been standing on the stage up until now spoke up to the crowd as he called forth the new members.

"Now, for the newly recruited members, please step forth."

The faunus they weren't in uniforms walked forward, following his instruction.

"Blake, come on. We have to go, now!" Sun warned her, shaking her shoulder.

"Ah...yeah...I..."

"Hey look! She has a weapon!" a faunas in the crowd pointed out to everyone.

Every other person turned to the two, their focus now entirely on Blake and Sun.

"Now fellow sister, why are you armed among brethren? Brother, you also seem to be with her as well," The high status member pointed out, now that people have cleared up and the two faunus were the only ones left behind right in the middle of it.

Sun cursed himself. He should have warned her earlier but he just had to forget about it at the last moment!

Blake merely stared at the faunus asking that question, not knowing what was the appropriate move she should do.

"I see. Our partners were correct; there are traitors among us...and humans as well! Capture those two and find them, they must be around!"

With that declaration, each member of the White Fang took out their weapons, most of them pointing towards the two faunus while the others searched around for any potential intruders.

* * *

Realizing that the faunus were in trouble, Ruby quickly turned towards the others, wanting to know what were their outlook at the current situation.

They said nothing, except for a quick nod. Each sporting an intense look in their eyes, showing that they wanted to save their friends as quickly as possible.

With nothing holding her back any longer, Ruby let go of her hands and legs as she jumped down on the vent.

The force behind her fall was just enough for the vent to fall under pressure as Ruby fell into the giant room, along with the others following just right above her.

* * *

None of them could have seen it coming. Even with their foreknowledge of knowing humans being amidst them, they couldn't have possibly predicted that their adversary would come to them the instant their allies were in trouble.

The very moment Ruby and the others landed on the stage, every one of them unsheathed their weapons...all except for Ruby that was.

The young leader knew that there should be almost no hope in trying but she had to. She had observed that some of them were hesitating, scared at the sight of the man being beaten like that. She just needed to get through to that side of them. The faunus in the White Fang were people, just like her and everyone else.

"Please, we don't mean any harm. I know you guys hate us humans...I can't speak for all of humanity here but I don't believe we all of think like that," Ruby pleaded.

"Then why were you spying on one of our meetings then, 'human'? Even going so far as using our own kind for your own needs...now you're trying to cover it up? You humans truly are disgusting," the high ranking member objected, sneering at them.

"I—"

Ruby didn't finish as he ordered the white Fang members to start attacking, with their nearest target being Blake and Sun.

* * *

Sun took out his weapons, placing them together to form his pole as he stood right in front of Blake, preparing to fend off anyone that would come their way.

Normally, he would be rushing in guns blazing, trying to power through anyone that would cross him...but the situation right now was anything but normal, and that was because...

Blake was still standing in the exact place she had been ever since she got here. She hadn't even unsheathed her own weapon. It was clear as day to the monkey faunus, that Adam had a bigger effect on her than he could possibly imagine.

And he hated it. Perhaps it didn't bear repeating but he disliked seeing Blake like this. It just rubbed him the wrong way...but whatever the hold that was on her, he was sure she would snap out of it by herself with enough time.

But time wasn't something that they have an abundance of right now because if he couldn't last long enough against the White Fang, then Blake will never even get the chance.

So, all he could do is just try to protect her as best as he could, until she was finally able to be back on her feet by herself. Of course, he was confident that Neptune and the others would arrive by their side in just a mere couple of seconds, so he could certainly hold it by himself for a couple of instances, couldn't he?

After all, if he couldn't even do that then how could he call himself a friend?

* * *

Quickly realizing how grim the situation was turning out to be, especially at Blake's unusual behaviour; Weiss, Yang and Neptune quickly jumped down from the stage they were standing and started dashing to join up with their friends.

Ruby was about to do the same, unsheathing Crescent Rose as she did so but she then remembered about the tied man. She couldn't just leave him like that.

Yes, she worried about Blake and Sun but she was confident that the others could handle it. No, she was absolutely sure of it.

Just as the young Rose was about to turn around to grab him, something hit her squarely in the head, causing her to fall down.

Ruby, being the stubborn person she was, refused to be knocked out just like that as she simply rolled off the ground and tried to gain her footing.

Once she found it, she made a mad dash towards the person who assaulted her just now. A loud clang echoed throughout the room, Ruby's scythe hooking with her opponent's own weapon.

It was an umbrella; the very same item that used to beat up an innocent person earlier.

Ruby's face was now full of determination, knowing who her opponent was. Her opponent's expression was that of sadistic glee, ecstatic that she had gunned for the exact person she was looking forward to meeting tonight.

Having enough of this stalemate, Ruby grabbed on to her scythe as she jumped kicked the woman in the gut. However, that very same move shattered the woman into a million pieces, shocking Ruby as she had no idea what just happened.

Ruby's confusion quickly turned into one of pain as she felt a strong kick to her sides, launching her onto the ground once again.

Holding her right side in pain, Ruby looked up to access what just happened but couldn't do so as her opponent was already right in front of her. Not wasting unneeded movement, the woman started lunging forward towards the red-headed leader of RWBY.

Narrowly dodging the first hit, Ruby got back on her feet as she started twirling Crescent Rose so that it would act like a shield of sorts.

The woman continued on, disregarding Ruby's current course of action almost entirely.

Still, it was working somewhat for the young Rose as the edge of the blade missed her as her scythe swung it into another direction.

It wouldn't last however as it seemed like with every stab, the woman was getting closer to actually hitting her.

Ruby didn't know how long she could last, and she needed to think up of a plan desperately.

"Ruby!" Yang called out, her voice full of worry.

"I'm...fine! Take care of Blake, I can hold her off for now!" Ruby shouted back before she turned back to the fight at hand.

Her little sister was right. Right now, Blake was of higher importance and she was needed to help.

But...she also wanted to help Ruby as well. She was frustrated, but she needed to comply at her sister's request. For once, she'll have to let Ruby be on her without her.

That being said, that didn't mean she couldn't just beat them all up in one fell swoop and help her sister later.

Yang turned away from Ruby and fired off her gauntlets, launching herself into the heat of battle.

Ruby could feel the fatigue setting in her arms as her spun got slower and slower, which allowed her opponent to see through her openings and exploit it.

The woman lunged her weapon through one of the gaps in-between, the edge of the shaft just instances away from coming in contact with Ruby.

The woman simply pressed on the bottom spring of her umbrella, causing it to open, hooking Ruby's scythe in the process. Ruby's arm stung as Crescent Rose was flung away from her, which was now placed on the floor, a bit too far for her to reach.

Ruby quickly backed away, wanting to gain some distance. The red-headed teen didn't panic as she simply had to go pick her scythe up again, the hard part was trying to get past her opponent.

There was also something nagging on her about the woman she was fighting currently, but she didn't quite know what was exactly off.

Still, Ruby didn't like her, not just because she was working with the White Fang, it was also because of the cruelty she showed earlier.

Releasing her breath, Ruby shifted her legs before she went into a basic fighting stance, something she was grateful towards Goku for teaching her though she had been slacking for quite a while now. That didn't mean she forgot about it because it was ingrained into her after all.

In turn, her opponent waited for the young Rose to make her move as she held her umbrella upwards, a smile never leaving her face.

* * *

High above the grounds of Beacon Academy, inside one of the aircrafts was where a particular thief was held at.

Roman sat at a corner of the cell he was currently placed in, bored out of his mind having nothing to do, his clothes a bit more ragged than a few hours ago.

Supposedly, he was going to be visited by the general again, which the thief guessed was another line of questioning…again.

Roman sighed. Who knew being above ground was even duller than being down below?

He wondered how his partner Neo was doing. If his assumptions were correct, she should be having a confrontation with a certain Red by now as the little brat had a knack for trouble. After all, he was the one who was supposed to appear on that stage tonight, he did wonder who Cinder got to substitute him. After all, there was no possible way that Neo could do it.

Bah. It didn't matter anymore; all he could do in these coming days was to lie around doing nothing but be incessantly questioned by a paranoid person.


	25. Escape

Ruby could feel the wind breezed through her as she sped up, turning into nothing but a blur in the eyes of normal observers.

There was only one purpose for using her semblance, and it was to use it to gain an advantage in the fight she was currently involved with. She needed all she could, considering her weapon of choice was not in her grasp.

And just like that, Ruby instantly closed the gap between her and Neo as she swung her leg in mid-air, confident that it would hit her opponent with it.

But it didn't.

Just before the hit connected, Neo simply ducked under as Ruby jumped right passed her, her kick missing entirely.

Upon landing, Ruby stumbled a bit due to her failed attempt earlier. Once she regained her footing, she quickly turned around to face Neo once again but the instant she did, Neo was already there, swinging her umbrella from above.

Unable to react, Ruby was smacked right onto the ground, the pain enveloping her whole body as she was now slumped atop the stage. It didn't stop there however, as when Ruby struggled to get back up again, Neo stepped on the young rose with her left leg, firmly placing Ruby on the ground.

With a sadistic smile, Neo started grinding the tip of her heel into the young Rose, only pinpointing in one area of Ruby's back as the woman knew doing so would most certainly cause Ruby more harm.

Ruby let out a groan as she winced from the hold the petite woman currently had on her. In her current predicament, she couldn't see any sort of way to get out of it. Ruby didn't have the amount of strength needed for her to escape...but if her opponent were to slack even for just a moment, then she definitely could pull something off! All the young Rose could do was to bide her time, hopefully not for long. Even with aura protecting her, she wasn't sure how long she could last if this keeps up.

Having played around long enough, Neo reached her right arm towards the handle of her weapon, seemingly to pull something out from it.

But before the woman even could, Ruby quickly pulled the back of her hood, causing Neo to fall down as Ruby hurriedly rolled off the ground.

Unfortunately for the young leader, Neo was able to balance herself as she flipped back into her normal posture. Though she was unaffected by what just happened earlier, even Neo was unprepared for what was about to come next.

It was fast, too fast for even the silent woman to keep up. Earlier, Neo had time to prepare and react but it was impossible right now unlike before. The young Rose's dash was almost instantaneous as she was already upon Neo's breathing space, her fist curling into a ball before it slammed right into her opponent's gut.

With her speed and strength combined, Ruby's punch was able to send Neo flying away into a nearby wall.

Ruby could feel her breathing becoming heavier and heavier as she stood in the spot Neo was at earlier. Even with her combat experience, her physical prowess still had its limit. Still, she was sure that hit earlier connected, she definitely felt it.

Ignoring the fatigue, Ruby knew this fight couldn't possibly be over as she ran towards the spot where Crescent Rose laid.

With her scythe back in her grasps, Ruby transformed it back into a gun as she got into position, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Ruby knew it was perfectly fine to fire freely now, knowing that the unconscious man was a far bit away from where she was targeting.

The instant her opponent was back into view, Ruby fire several rounds at Neo, not noticing how relaxed the woman was even after what just happened.

Neo simply opened up her parasol, deflecting the blasts into other directions as they come into the contact with her weapon.

One of them was towards the fight that was happening below.

The blast flew, slowly descending until it was at a straight course towards a still dazed Blake.

Noticing this, Ruby yelled out at the top of her lungs, hoping that Blake would hear her.

"Blake, look out!"

The cat faunus was able to hear her leader's warning but it was too late at that point as the blast was already within range. Blake shut her eyes tightly, preparing for the inevitable.

Surprisingly, it never came.

"It seems like you're slipping Blake. Normally, I would think you out of all people would be able to dodge that one," the voice of a certain heiress chimed in.

Blake's eyes fluttered open, only to be greeted by the sight a wall of ice erected in front of her, with Weiss Schnee standing behind it, whipping her hair backwards as she held out her rapier.

It all felt very familiar, more specifically back at the docks when they were facing Roman and the White Fangs. Only this time, she was protected not because she exhausted every ounce she had; she was protected because she was still too hung up on Adam!

The former member of the White Fang honestly hated that she was still tied down towards him, unable to be released from his grasps just from looking at him once.

Weiss silently observed her teammate, impossible of knowing what was going through Blake's mind. That didn't matter as the heiress only had one thing to say.

"I don't know what...this is all about but right now, we need you Blake, all of us. But judging from how you look, I suppose that's too much to ask," Weiss pointed out, her back still towards Blake.

"Weiss, I—"

"That's why you should leave it to us for now, at least until you're back to your normal self. After all, it's not team RWBY without you correct?"

Before Blake could even respond, the wall of ice was broken into pieces as members of the White Fang shot it down, the pieces of shard dropping as the bullets fly through.

Weiss simply lunged forward, activating her glyphs as she did so.

All Blake did was stood there, hesitant on what to do.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, knowing that Blake was safe thanks to her partner.

Still, she had a feeling that shot her opponent deflected was aimed on purpose. Ruby gripped Crescent Rose tightly, her gaze solely on the older woman.

Neo was simply letting out her usual smile, the same smile that unnerved Ruby for some reason.

With that, she started shooting once again as she ran around; this time however, making sure that the shot wouldn't fly towards somewhere else, wanting to keep her opponent's focus solely on her, until she could figure out a way to escape out of this predicament with everyone, the unconscious man included.

* * *

A bit further away from Blake and the others, Yang was surrounded by White Fang members, a toothy grin in tow as she punched one of the White Fang members in the gut, her opponent falling down from the impact.

"Are you guys gonna do something or should I take the first punch...because I can't waste my time on you all," Yang announced loudly, her expression changing into one of complete seriousness as she reloaded her gauntlets.

The White Fang members immediately rushed in, disregarding what happened earlier.

Yang ducked under as an arm flew right above her before she grabbed said arm and threw the White Fang member over her shoulder, knocking some of them onto the floor alongside person she threw.

None of them let up as more came, wanting to take down the blonde huntress-in-training.

It didn't stop her however as she simply started punching her way through the crowds of White Fang members, knocking them unconscious when one was in her sight.

It didn't take much to beat them, but it was certainly a struggle to go through the sheer number of them. Luckily, none of them were exactly what they called heavy hitters, though the fact that they were unable to use their weaponry in a crowd was definitely advantageous to her.

Still, she couldn't afford to waste any more time as she needed to get to Blake and the others as soon as possible. As strong as they were, they were going to have trouble trying to fight while protecting Blake, doubly so with her partner's present condition.

* * *

It was hectic to put it simply as Sun went through the wave of White Fang members trying to put him down. Luckily, he wasn't the only one there since Neptune was stopping the other side relative to Blake's position; the same could be said for Weiss as they were all positioned in a specific way so that Blake could be protected from all sides.

Another one fell as he slammed his pole downward before swinging it in a clockwise direction, pushing some of them away. Sun didn't let up however as he separated his pole into a pair of nunchucks, hitting the two men that were coming from both his sides in the face, rendering them unconscious.

Sun let out a glare as the remaining members stood motionless before him, seemingly hesitating after seeing the display they just witnessed.

That wasn't the only thing as one of them posed him a simple question.

"Tell me, why did you forsake your brothers and sisters for the sake of these...humans? They were the ones who used you in the first place!" a member questioned, not in uniform unlike the others.

"First off, there is no way I consider any of you White Fang creeps to be any relatives I know of. Second, doesn't matter if they're faunus or not, I'll help my friends whenever I can."

This seemed to enrage them as they charged once again, with Sun preparing for another long series of battle.

* * *

Neptune wiped the sweat off his brow, a bit winded from having just slashing repeatedly with his spear.

He was never one for stamina, never had been since his leader had enough those to last for the both of them. Though when it came to precision...

That gave him an idea as he put on his goggles before transforming his spear into a gun. Neptune immediately put it into action as he started shooting them on the ground they were standing on, blocks of ice as it freeze their legs.

While it stopped their mobility, it certainly didn't stop them from having the chance to fire their guns. Luckily, Neptune had foreseen this as he quickly changed back his weapon, slashing their weapons in two in a timely manner.

His job wasn't to beat them anyway; it was just to stall for time.

* * *

How long exactly? He had no idea but he certainly hoped it was soon. As calm as he was on the outside, he was inwardly nervous as he couldn't exactly tell how long he would last out here, and Neptune seriously didn't want to find out either.

Weiss whipped her rapier back as another member of the White Fang fell to one of her strikes. For some odd reason, she found the number of opponents to be lacking...in comparison to the others. Was it perhaps a coincidence or—

"My my, isn't that a particular symbol on your back, specifically for the Schnee."

The heiress turned towards the voice, keeping her guard up as she did so. Upon doing so, she was greeted by the sight of a group of White Fang members all huddled in front of her and in the front center of it all, was the member that seemed to hold a higher rank than the others.

She didn't notice it earlier but the man was clearly of a different rank just from his outfit alone. Unlike the others, he wore bracers, a much bigger physique and the most alarming thing about him that was not present earlier, was the giant chainsaw he was now holding onto.

"Well well, a Schnee protecting one of our kind? Isn't that just blasphemous...even if two of our own here are traitors!" The high admin accused out loud, his finger pointing towards Blake.

Weiss took a glance towards Blake, noting that her teammate's condition was unchanged and simply stared back at her opponents.

The White Fang.

"What do you have to say for yourself? Do you not know what sins your entire family has committed, for all those years?!"

Weiss kept silent, taking in what he had just said.

All this time, the heiress had always assumed that every faunus would have been associated with this organization and who could blame her? The White Fang had been a reason for a lot of turmoil and hardships that her family had went through.

However, she could somewhat understand their hatred towards the Schnee family. Before even coming to Beacon, she had never wanted to admit it and even now, it was somewhat hard for her to say, but the Schnee family was not totally innocent in all this, and she needed to bear it.

Now, her perspective had changed since the night at the docks. While she would not wildly accuse every faunus out there and was able to be level-headed about it now, that didn't mean she didn't have disdain towards the White Fang in general. After all, it was impossible to sudden erase the history between the two.

That was why she did not answer him. All she needed to focus on now was the protection of her friend. Weiss closed her eyes as she concentrated, glyphs appearing in mid-air around her.

Furious with her silence, the high-ranked member gestured for the White Fang members as they started rushing towards the heiress.

Just as one of them were about to strike her, Weiss simply jumped towards one of the glyphs, using them as platform as she sprung from above, striking them in a row as she went passed them. Weiss then backflipped away as one of them tried to grab her from the sides.

Weiss revolved the chambers within the guard of her rapier, until it slotted to a red chamber. She stood in a readied position before lunging forward, slashing in mid-air to create a thin wave of fire blasting out.

A small fiery explosion occurred as the flames collided with the White Fang members, with some of them knocked out due to the impact. The heiress then felt a sudden pain in her left arm as someone punched her from the side, Weiss taking a few steps back as she did.

Returning focus, she saw it was the lieutenant earlier that hit her, and he was about to try again as he outstretched his arm. Weiss held out her right arm as a glyph appeared before it, acting as a shield. Her glyph did just the job as the lieutenant's arm collided with it, unable to do anything to it.

With an all too gleeful smile, the older man held out his chainsaw high up before striking it down, destroying her glyph as it shattered into translucent pieces.

Weiss quickly backed away but was quickly caught off guard as her opponent caught up with her, grabbing onto her arm. Her muscles tensed as the White Fang lieutenant threw her overhead, sending her flying. Not wanting to have a rough landing, Weiss activated one of her glyphs, appearing in mid-air as she landed on it, and just before she dived in, the tip of her rapier at the front as she did so.

Having observed what the heiress did earlier, the older man simply held out his chainsaw in front of him, covering the upper part of his body.

As the rapier planted itself into the weapon, the older man smirked, knowing he won this little exchange. The lieutenant was about to grab her weapon with his free hand but Weiss was one step ahead as she threw herself in an arc, jumping over the lieutenant's head.

Once she landed, the heiress did a low roundhouse kick on her opponent, staggering him as he fell down from the sudden pain.

Angered, the lieutenant swung his weapon towards Weiss but he had momentarily forgotten the rapier was still stuck to his chainsaw, causing his swing to be slower than it should be because of the extra weight at the end, and that was all Weiss needed to capitalize on.

As the swing arrived, Weiss simply back stepped away, just far enough that the weapon didn't hit her, even with the inclusion of Myrtenaster but also close enough for her to pull her weapon out of it mid-swing. As she did so, Weiss took a step forward before she spun herself along with her rapier, slashing the man across the chest.

Groaning in pain, the older man swung his weapon once again in the hopes that it would crush the heiress entirely.

Realizing the danger, Weiss quickly backed away as the chainsaw was swung in a circular arc. What Weiss didn't anticipate was the sheer force the swing had as it created a wind pressure just from that alone.

Weiss was certain if she were to be hit by it, there was a good chance she would have been unconscious for a while. As much as she wanted to deny it, her endurance to pain was palpable compared to her teammates.

"Well well, it seems I'm going to have a bit of fun with you, Schnee...my brothers and sisters! Leave her to me as you all deal with the infiltrators!"

At his command, the members that were still conscious scrambled, noticeably towards Blake and the others.

Weiss was about to intercept them but widen her eyes in shock as the lieutenant suddenly started charging towards her at a frightening speed, yelling at the top of lungs while doing so. The man was swinging like a madman, attacking in all directions as he ran. Even Weiss could do nothing but to focus everything on dodging his strikes.

The lieutenant chased her until the heiress was now facing at the direction where Blake was, which Weiss didn't want as now, she needed to get past the lieutenant if she wanted to help her teammate.

"Time for round two, Schnee..."

That was all the man said before he activated his chainsaw, the blades on it rotating with a loud noise attached to it.

Weiss mentally steeled herself; this was going to be anything but easy.

* * *

Sun looked back and noticed that a number of goons were coming after Blake, directly from Weiss's side. Turning his head just a bit, he saw the heiress was preoccupied with the guy that was talking on stage earlier, and immediately came to a decision.

"Neptune, we need to get closer to Blake!" Sun yelled out to his partner before he jumped towards Blake where Blake was.

Hearing his command, Neptune followed suit as he joined Sun, the two now in close proximity with the cat faunus as they faced the numerous amount of White Fang members.

Sun glanced back at Blake, and as expected, she was still in the same state. However, the cat faunus seemed a bit more aware than before. It might have been due to the blast earlier, perhaps because of the passing of time itself; either way, the monkey faunus was glad that progress was being made, no matter how small it was.

"You ready to show these White Fang creeps what we're really made of?!" Sun questioned confidently, knowing what Neptune would respond with.

"You betcha leader," the blue headed teen responded firmly as the two readied their weapons, waiting for the incoming assault.

And then it began.

A wave of White Fang members rushed in, all of them coming up to the three, it seemed like the numbers were limitless, even with the amount that had been taken down. `

Sun and Neptune was constantly under pressure, having to continuously both fend off the members of White Fang member while trying to protect Blake at the same time. However, what they lack in number the two was able to compensate more than enough with their own way of working together; when one was in trouble, the other would be able to instantly tell and cover their weakness. Thus, the boys were never in the same spot as they were constantly on the move, moving sideways in a circle, with the center of it being Blake herself. Suffice to say, the two boys' teamwork was almost impeccable.

And it was that very same bond and cooperation that would be their downfall. Not only were they continuously moving, their eyes were also always darting around, observing whether it be respective partner, the person they were protecting or even the opponents in front of them. It was all very taxing, both physically and mentally. So sooner or later, the cracks would start to show in their defense. Ultimately, they would succumb to the limits of the mind and the body, it was only a matter of time.

* * *

Up on the stage, things were becoming more and more hectic as the battle raged on between the diminutive woman and the young Rose. It was a role reversal compared to the beginning of the fight as the one who was in the constant offense was Ruby, with her opponent being the one on the defense.

Though the roles were swapped, the situation was not. Ruby was still having a lot of trouble dealing with Neo. Whatever she dished out, the silent woman would easily counter it, with almost unnatural degree and ease. The only time Ruby felt she actually had the advantage was when she was able to deliver the gut punch earlier but since then, she hadn't felt like that at any point at all that she was in control of the fight.

Was the skill gap between her and her opponent that large?

No. It was pointless to think about things like that right now. All she needed to know was that she needed a way to settle this fight, and soon. While it was true her focus had been entirely been on the battle up until this point, that didn't mean she didn't sneak glances to check up on her friends. And unless she had observed wrong, it was clear as day that most of them were exhausted beyond belief.

Some way or another, they needed to escape as even Ruby can tell that if they were continue to fight, they would most certainly be caught.

With only one thing in mind, Ruby steeled herself, changing her ammunition clip before she launched another attack on the woman.

Ruby quickly shot backwards with Crescent Rose, using the recoil to propel herself forward as she readied her scythe in the air. As she swung, Neo easily backflip away, the scythe the older woman entirely but Ruby didn't relent as she shot herself upward, rolling in mid-air before swinging her scythe down hard.

But once again, the woman simply dodged to the right as Crescent Rose swung right past her, with the tip of the scythe planting itself onto the stage. Neo immediately held up her parasol to defend herself as the young Rose swung herself sideways as she let out a kick.

The kick itself was strong enough to push back Neo but was nowhere near enough to actually overwhelm her opponent. However, it was just enough for Ruby to work with.

Ruby flung herself backward before she positioned herself just right behind Crescent Rose. She then held out her left hand, placing it near the trigger of her weapon, before she took aim.

One shot.

And that was all she needed. The leader of team RWBY had learned from her previous mistake, and had adapted accordingly.

The woman smirked, assuming that the outcome would be just like before as she opened her umbrella, allowing it to cover the area of the blast. It was the opposite of the woman's expectations as the bullet dissipated into the weapon itself, a wave of electricity spread across her weapon and by extension, Neo herself.

Neo stumbled a bit, not expecting the sudden discomfort. It was not anything that could harm her directly but the shot had momentarily stunned her, effectively limiting her movements.

That was what Ruby had aimed for as she removed Crescent Rose from the ground before dashing across the stage in a quick blur, leaving trails of rose petals behind her.

While it was difficult for the older woman to move, but as time passed, the effects were starting to dissipate even if only a matter of seconds had passed. And because of that, Neo slid her right arm across the shaft of her umbrella, until her fingers was situated right above the bottom spring.

Just as Neo was within Ruby's striking zone, the diminutive woman pressed the trigger just when Crescent Rose was already midway towards its target. The sudden opening of the umbrella pushed Ruby backwards as the snath of her scythe connected with the woman's weapon.

While a bit winded, it didn't deterred Ruby as she simply spun around, swinging her scythe once again; only this time it was from another angle.

But it was too late as the effects that held her back were diminished to the point that Neo could once again take control of her arms and legs. The woman jumped back just as Crescent Rose was about to reach her but Ruby was able to snag the top of the umbrella, before she pulled it back. Swiftly, Ruby was able to remove the weapon from her opponent as the top of the umbrella was flung into the air—

—which was exactly what Neo wanted her to do.

As Ruby reel back Crescent Rose, she noticed that the woman had a new weapon in her hand; a long, thin blade. It was a simple weapon, but just because it was basic didn't mean the woman was not as dangerous as before. In fact, it might have been the opposite.

Neo lunged forward, her smirk ever present as the blade was already inches away from Ruby. Ruby quickly spun her weapon around as she redirected it into another direction. This didn't stop Neo as she followed the same motion her sword was going through, lifting her legs up as she kicked Ruby in the back of her head.

It was painful, it felt almost akin to a bullet being shot just from that one kick alone and just as quickly, she was sent skidding across the stage, letting out a yelp before it finally stop. She shook her head in pain as she got up, a bit disoriented from the hit just now.

Smiling, Neo simply picked up her fallen umbrella and held it with her free hand as she just stood there, waiting for her opponent's next move.

Ruby found herself standing up once again, relief that her strength had not betrayed her just yet. Still, it hurt. Not only did the attack dealt on her significant, but the sudden headache certainly didn't help. She felt like she would fall unconscious at a snap of finger.

But she couldn't give up! In fact, this only drove her more to stand up against the enemy she was facing against, whether her opponent was now truly serious or not didn't matter.

All she could do now was to move forward despite all the odds stacked against her.

* * *

Weiss let out a grunt as she bended over, with her hands placed on both of her knees, and breathed profusely as she wiped off the sweat that was pouring out of her cheeks.

"What's the matter Schnee? Out of breathe already?" the lieutenant taunted, confident that the battle was already won.

The lietenant on the other hand, looked like he had plenty of energy in reserves. It was the absolute opposite to that of Weiss.

From the fight until now, Weiss was sure she had hit her opponent more than he ever possibly could. Yet, she was the one who was exhausted beyond belief.

The older man charged forward, his chainsaw skidding across the ground with sparks going off as the blade of his weapon clashed with the ground.

Weiss responding by simply pinning her rapier right into the ground, her head hung low as she stood there, staring at the ground.

Witnessing the strange scene before him, the man slowed down before finally, slowly dragging his chainsaw as he walked up to her.

It was maddening for the heiress as she took in the sound of heavy footsteps approaching her, the sound of his chainsaw clashing against the floor and finally, her own beating heart. She could hear every bit of it, the beating sound in her heart getting even louder as the lieutenant slowly got closer.

"Well well, it seems the little Schnee has finally accepted the inevitable! Unfortunately, there is no such thing as mercy for you Schnee… but your head would be worthy for the White Fang's noble cause!" the lieutenant said gleefully, his deep voice sounding excited at the prospect of beheading his hated enemy.

With that proclamation, the lieutenant reeled his chainsaw back, before swinging it in full force. But just before it could even reach the heiress, the ground between the two cracked and suddenly exploded, bits of debris flying everywhere. The White Fang member screamed in agony, having felt the full force of the blast as he was thrown off the ground and into the air.

Weiss fared no better as she was thrown back from the impact, rolling off the ground until she was now sprawled on the ground, the sound of sparks fizzling out coming from the heiress. She could feel both her ears ringing incessantly as she struggled to get up again. Placing her left hand on her cheeks, and removed it as she stared at the palm of her hand, a splotch of blood painted on it.

She could surmise that there was a trickle of blood flowing across her face at the moment, though weirdly enough, she couldn't quite feel the pain. Perhaps the bruises on her might have overtaken it instead.

Still, she was inwardly glad that her desperate attempt worked. It wasn't exactly perfect, seeing as she was caught up in the explosion as well but it certainly had the effect that she desired.

She just hoped it was enough to take the faunus down.

Her train of thought was cut off as a loud voice echoed throughout the room.

"SCHNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—"

The lieutenant's condition was even worse than Weiss's. Unlike before, his White Fang uniforms were now in tatters, pieces of his braces chipped away and his mask had been cracked right in the middle. Cuts and bruises could be seen all over his body, and even little bits of blood dripping from him as well. His most dangerous weapon was now a former shell of its destructive nature. Whereas before, its blade could cut anything in an instance, it was now partially destroyed, with bits of it lying on the ground, and the blades all gone.

Weiss was shocked that he was still able to stand, let alone yell like that because as of right now, she was completely out of options, having no strength left to fight.

The lieutenant started walking, disregarding everything around him as his focus was solely on Weiss. The man trudged on and on, as if every step he took was a heavy task that required everything of him.

The sounds of his footsteps were loud but it didn't hold the tone it had earlier when he as approaching her. This one felt...desperate, until seconds later the footsteps finally stopped.

The heiress didn't know why he did so and perhaps didn't want to know. She couldn't possibly fathom what the man could have next in his sleeves, even if how impossible it may seem given his current condition. Nonetheless, Weiss simply continued lying into the ground, unable to move. It wasn't until a few seconds later that she heard a very familiar voice.

"Hey Weiss, you need a lift?" Yang called out to her teammate, a smile of relief on her face.

"Ya...ng?" the heiress murmured almost hazily.

Indeed it was. Yang didn't look worse for wear despite having fought through the wave of White Fang members, sans the number of dirt that was all over her but she was still in prime condition, judging from her general demeanour at the moment.

Weiss was confused of Yang's presence until she suddenly realized something.

"Watch out! He's about to—"

Yang stayed silent at her words, before finally giving it to her straight.

"Umm Weiss, the fight is already over."

"What?"

"Well, you can see for yourself."

Weiss didn't understand her teammate's words, until Yang lifted Weiss up in a bridal style so that she could now get a better look at the situation.

Weiss gasped upon seeing the condition her opponent just now was in.

The lieutenant was simply just standing there, unmoving. It was almost unnerving to the heiress to see someone in a state such as this, and she was the one who caused it. The White Fang or not, did she actually...

"Don't worry about it too much, he just passed out on the spot," Yang reassured her teammate, knowing what Weiss was thinking as she noticed the heiress's shocked expression.

Weiss let out a sigh of relief. It would have eaten at her conscious if she committed murder, self-defense or not. She just wasn't prepared to do it, and hopefully never have to.

"Still, gotta hand it to you ice queen. If you didn't do something as crazy as that, I doubt you would have won."

Weiss didn't truly believe she won the fight between her and the lieutenant. At best, she considered it a draw. The man was unlike any opponent she had ever fought and truth be told, she felt like she was walking near a very volatile dust mine, meaning her life was in danger at all times. That being said, now that the blonde mentioned it...she was curious about something.

"Yang, how did you know where I was? I thought you had your hands full with White Fang members just like the rest of us."

It was a general question, but one she genuinely wanted to know. With the pile of men Yang had to deal with, it should not have been easy for the blonde brawler to know where she was.

"I'm Yang Xiao Long! There's no way any of these bozos stand a chance against me! That and the fact that there was no one around the fight you two had made it pretty easy for me to spot you," Yang stated confidently, flashing a grin.

Weiss turned towards the location Yang as at earlier, and there only laid unconscious members of the White Fang. Weiss looked back at Yang, realizing that her teammate didn't have much battle damage, which impressed her. That was, until Weiss remembered that there was no time for them to relax.

"Blake! We need to get to Blake now!" the heiress screamed right into Yang's ear, something she didn't like as she rubbed her sore ears.

Recovering from Weiss's outburst, Yang's expression turned into one of understanding as she simply nodded and started running as fast her legs allowed, carrying Weiss in tow.

As Yang ran, Weiss decided to take one last glance at the White Fang lieutenant. She was surprised to see that there was a grunt that was not involved with the fight surrounding Blake's side. The grunt was incapable of forming words at the state of his lieutenant, but he was able to yell out two words in shock.

"General Banesaw!"

Weiss closed her eyes and turned back, having seen enough. She needed to at least know of his name, since she had an alarming feeling that the two would meet again, as her team was continuously involved in the White Fang's activities.

* * *

Blake stood still, her eyes uneven and unfocused. Her perception on what was going around was still muddy as most of her focus was her mind trying to process the fact she had just seen Adam, even if he was not really present.

Why now? She thought she would have been fine. Logically speaking, sooner or later she was bound to meet him again in her goal of changing the White Fang...she was the one who cut off contact from him after all, but just seeing his appearance just now finally set it in.

She couldn't possibly cut ties with him. It was just impossible; no matter how much she hide, no matter where she ran ...she would always be pulled back, and that scared her.

"Blake...Blake...Blake!" a voice yell out.

The cat faunus could vaguely hear it in the midst of the loud fight occurring outside, but her inner turmoil was causing much more of a ruckus, thus the noise was like static, feebly trying to get her attention.

That was until she felt a sharp pain in her left cheek, forcing her to finally be aware of her surroundings.

Her eyes traced around the area, with the first thing she saw was her partner Yang. The blonde brawler was standing upright with her right hand extended, a look of mirth in her eyes.

"Did that finally get your attention?"

Blake lifted her left hand as it traced across her redden cheeks,

"Wh—

"Look around you!" Yang yelled, her eyes flashing crimson for a split of a second, before returning to its usual colour.

She did as such, her eyes trailing off until she spotted a certain heiress right behind her partner, who was currently lying on the ground. Weiss didn't say anything but the heiress's eyes were more than enough of what was being conveyed to her.

Then, she looked around as she noticed a flurry of blurs zipping around in a circle. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Sun and Neptune.

The two were still fighting off grunts that dared to approach them, but compared to before, even Blake realized that the boys' movements were much slower than before. It was to her bewilderment that the two had cuts and bruises all over them and looked like they would pass out at any moments, but she could tell the two would not yield despite the circumstances.

It finally dawned on her that each and every one of them were like this because of her. She was the one who brought them here, it was all her fault...was that why Yang—

"Don't try to take it all in again. Geez, you know you could just talk to us. Anyway, I told you that because all of us, Weiss, Ruby, me, Neptune, Sun...we're in this with you and we wouldn't want it any other way. So, if anything, we need you to buck up and go back to the old Blake we know so we can get out of here, all of us."

Blake stared at her partner, letting what she just heard sink in.

"That's all I gotta say."

Yang then turned her back against Blake as she joined the two boys into battle.

Blake merely stared at the floor, silent as seconds passed, only the sounds of gunshots firing nearby being heard.

It finally came to her. All this time, her friends were protecting her the entire time and all she did was just stood there, doing nothing. Worse, she held it all in again. It meant that she didn't trust them enough even after their previous encounter with the White Fang.

Truthfully, she had enough of it. If this ever—no, after this was over, she absolutely needed to lay it all out for the reasons of her strange peculiar behaviour. Right now however...

Blake simply took a step forward, unsheathing the sword from her back.

Seeing this, Weiss let out a smile, relief and happy that they had their teammate back with them.

"You are awfully late Blake, are you perhaps becoming Ruby now?"

"Hmm, maybe I am. Though I think our roles are reversed now," Blake pointed out as she was the one protecting Weiss instead of the other way around.

"Oh haha," Weiss laughed mockingly, before the heiress spoke once again.

"It's good to have you back."

Blake smiled warmly at the comment. Never had she thought a member of the Schnee family would say that to her and yet, here it was, and she was genuinely glad for that.

"Yeah..." Blake answered back before she sprinted towards the battle that was ensuing.

As she got there, the three were bewildered to see her presence but their confusion quickly turned into one of relief. They didn't say anything. They didn't need to, except for Sun that was.

"What took you so long? I was starting to think we were gonna handle all the fun without you," Sun yelled out, before pushing back another White Fang grunt.

Blake inwardly laughed at that as she joined in the fray, slashing one of them in the chest before following it up to a roundhouse kick to the chest, pushing them away.

Upon seeing this, several of them backed away, realizing that there were four of them opposing them now. And if the two boys were any indication of their general strength, then they were correct to have seconds thoughts.

"So...what's our plan of escape?" Blake asked, eyeing the opponents in front of her carefully.

Neptune had several ideas for that, thus he spoke out as he held out his spear in caution.

"Well, we can either wait for Weiss's aura to start generating again so that we can back up ruby or—"

"—wait for Ruby to finish her fight instead," Sun finished off Neptune's words.

Each of them took in their options, and knew respectively that the fastest way to get out was in Ruby's hands. And they really do need to escape fast, with their limited stamina.

But someone else had something other than that in mind.

"Or our best option, just blow everyone here away," Yang announced loudly as she punched her fists together, her confidence unwavering. Her voice was so loud in fact the White Fang grunts in the vicinity heard her.

This understandably made them furious, for their pride in their strength couldn't just be mocked like that, especially by a human of all things.

Blake merely stared at her partner flatly. She sometimes wondered if her partner was doing this on purpose. Then again, it wasn't without merit, seeing the numbers of White Fang members had at least gone down by half. Yet it was also a reckless one, as even half was still a huge number judging from the looks of it. Blake only hoped her leader was able to finish her own fight soon, seeing that any longer than this might result in more than just mere injuries.

* * *

For her entire life up until this point, Ruby Rose had never felt a fight being as one sided as she did right now. Sure, she had been plenty of fights, both Grimm and humans alike, but she always felt she had a chance of winning.

This battle was anything but that.

Neo was wielding both her sword and the remaining parts of her umbrella, twirling the umbrella in a nonchalant way, even if its handle had been removed. Though Neo looked seemingly at ease, Ruby knew more than anything else it was just a simple taunt as ever since the woman had held her weapons like this, it had become exceedingly difficult to break her defense.

If at the start of the fight the diminutive woman was an impenetrable shield, then right now, the woman was an unbreakable fortress. No matter what angle she came at, what speed she was at, what tactics she pulled, Ruby couldn't come close to even touching her opponent.

Add to the fact that her body was closed to the breaking point didn't really help with her chances. The sole reason she was still able to fight was her pure stubbornness and belief in that everything would turn out all right in the end.

Ruby merely stood there as she cautiously eyed her opponent, the two at a pretty fair distance from one another. The young Rose watched as Neo slowly walked over to them still unconscious man and as she stop, the diminutive woman held up her blade high up in the air, her intent all too clear for Ruby to see.

Before even the young Rose realized herself, she had already went into a starting run, before she dashed off, turning into a blur in anyone's eyes.

Ruby didn't know why she ran. Even before her body started to move her mind itself had not processed what just happened. It was as if her entire being wanted to save the man, no matter the cost.

Did she regret it? No. Not at all.

However, the very instant Ruby was in close proximity, preparing to push the man out of the way, her vision was suddenly blocked by the appearance of the canopy of the umbrella. It was floating in mid-air, the top of the shaft right in the middle where Ruby's forehead was from a horizontal view.

And then it suddenly lunged forward, hitting directly at her forehead. The instance it touched her, she was sent flying back at high speeds. The hit was so strong that upon impact, the resulting force cause a huge dent as Ruby landed on the metallic stage, a loud clang reverberating throughout the entire building.

Neo smirked, knowing that she had for sure won as she slowly worked towards the now unconscious Ruby, who had a trail of blood across her face, with a giant bruise right in her forehead.

Her line of motion stopped as a round of gunfire shot through the air, accompanied by the voice of a very angry blonde.

"You stay away from my sister!"

Neo dodged to the side as the blast collided onto the ground, and continued to do so as several more blasts rained down.

Yang relented for now as she landed onto the stage, her blazing red eyes glaring at the diminutive woman.

She was furious. No, more than that...she was enraged! For someone to even have the gall of—she didn't want to think about it, all she wanted to do right now was to pound the person responsible with everything she could muster.

Yang tighten her fists in frustration, before punching them together as her entire body flared up, with her hair standing on end. With a flick of a trigger, Yang blasted herself forward as she pulled back her right arm in mid-air, before delivering a right hook to the older woman.

The strike missed entirely as Neo simply twisted her body a bit, not moving from her spot.

Unrelenting, Yang simply reeled it back before releasing a barrage of punches. The blonde yelled in anger, wanting to pummel her opponent.

Neo still had a calm demeanour as she continuously dodged each and every one of Yang's punches. They were destructive for sure, feeling the heat and intensity in each and every one of them, even she wouldn't be left unscathed. It was pointless however, but even with all of Yang's strength, the blonde could never possibly beat her if none of them ever hit, especially with the her opponent's current mental state.

As if to defy her opponent, Yang let out a fierce battle cry, signifying a changed in her attack rhythm. With each consecutive punch, Yang's punches got even faster, even fiercer, even stronger than the previous one, until it was to the point that even Neo was forced to stop her current momentum as she tripped the blonde with the simple swing of her weapon.

Yang couldn't possibly saw it coming, seeing her entire focus was on attacking, disregarding everything else in her surroundings. Still, as she fell, the blonde turned her mistake into one of chance as she placed her hand on the ground, giving it a good twist before delivering a sweeping kick in the process.

Neo was no fool. She had more than enough reflexes to anticipate such an attack as she pinned her weapon in the ground, blocking the direction of the blonde's kick. Just as Yang's kick was about to hit the umbrella, Neo countered back as she let out a jump kick to the blonde's guts.

However, even with the woman's weapon blocking the attack, Yang's strength was more than enough kick it off the ground, effectively destroying the Neo's pillar of balance. But the instant the blonde did just that, Yang let out a pained groan as she got blown away by the woman's kick, tossing her to the side.

Neo's jump kick allowed her to use Yang as a platform, as she simply back flipped back in place while the blonde got pushed back, as though nothing ever happened.

It didn't stop Yang at all as she simply got up again and with a huge roar, triggering both her shotguns to thrust her forward into her opponent once again, her anger exploding in blind fury.

* * *

Blake looked on, staring at the battle now taking atop of the stage. It was almost unbelievable how enraged Yang looked. She had never seen her partner like this, even when Yang was fighting the Grimm back during initiation when strands of her hair fell. The moment her partner had witnessed the unconscious form of Ruby, Yang bulldozed every White Fang members in the way before jumping to protect their leader. Thus, it was left to the three to protect the heiress.

Truth be told, Blake had contemplated that this was the perfect moment for them to escape. It wasn't a completely foolproof of a plan but hopefully, it would be enough.

"One of you get Weiss and we go towards where Yang and Ruby are. We need to escape, now!" Blake commanded, emphasizing her last words.

The two boys looked to one another, nodding in understanding before Neptune quickly turned back and ran towards where Weiss laid.

"Come on Blake. What are we waiting for? Let's open a way for those two to go through," Sun shouted loudly as he rushed into the group of White Fang members.

Blake rolled her eyes, a bemused smile plastered on her face. She was thinking she would be the one to lead but Sun had already beaten her to the punch. He always did tried a bit too much, not that she hated it.

The cat faunus dashed forward, her sword and sheathe in hand as she cut through the crowd of faunus. She didn't like to fight in this way, especially so since it was her own kind, but it was necessary right now.

As her blades clashed with another's weapon, the cat faunus glanced back, checking up on Neptune and Weiss. The blue-headed teen was carrying the heiress with his back as he ran as fast as he could, trying to keep up.

Blake breathed heavily before she finally pushed her opponent away with one move.

They were all going to get out of this, no matter what.

Normally, a person's anger would subside as the river known as time flows. However, for one Yang Xiao Long, this did not apply to her right now as the longer she fought, the angrier she became.

Yang let out a growl in frustration as she shattered another illusion made by Neo. This had been going on for a while now, with her getting hit and her opponent dodging every one of her hits. The process then rinsed and repeated itself, the only difference being Yang's every surging rage.

It was more than infuriating! She needed to discharge this anger somewhere and more than anything else, she wanted it to land on her opponent. But for her to do that, she needed to be calm enough to think straight. It was difficult for her to do so, but she needed to relax a bit. Yang bit her lips as she begrudgingly closed her eyes, momentarily ignoring her opponent.

Witnessing the scene before, it was more than a perfect moment to strike as Neo quickly lunged forward, only for her eyes to widen in bewilderment as Yang grabbed onto it, the blonde staring at her menacingly.

"Gotcha," Yang stated as she let out a straight punch, a red glint coming out from her gauntlets.

Just as it was about to hit, Neo pulled the handle of her umbrella back, revealing her blade before twisting herself to avoid the hit.

As the blast collided onto the ground, Neo had already spun herself, swinging her weapon along.

Instinctively, Yang held out her left hand defensively, not wanting to even give her opponent another advantage point against her. The sounds of metal clashing could be heard as the blade collided with Yang's gauntlet, the two weapons shaking against one another.

Not allowing the chance to slip passed her, Yang headbutted the older woman, causing Neo to winced away from the hit as she took a few steps back, her weapon now in Yang's hands.

Neo didn't let out a sound but Yang was confident she had her that time, the touch of flesh could be felt, unlike the illusions.

Nonetheless, Yang continued on as she threw the umbrella and the sword to the side. She then took a heavy step forward, reeling her body before she punched Neo in the gut, twisting it slowly.

Just as Yang was about to fire off her gauntlets, Neo placed her right hand around Yang's own, which only served to enrage the blonde as she formed a fist using her other hand.

Neo lifted herself upward as she jumped, twisting her body in mid-air to dodge the attack.

Before Yang even realized it, her head was no wrapped around by the woman's legs, but before she could attempt anything, Yang was tossed over as her vision turned upside down, before finally landing somewhere a bit far away from their previous spot.

With her opponent out of the way, Neo picked up her weapon once again, inserting the blade into her umbrella.

Yang jumped back up into position as she gritted her teeth, glaring at Neo. She was about to rush in and try again but stopped at the sight of Blake and others landing from above. She then turned towards what was below and saw that many of the grunts had been knocked unconscious but there were just as many left, though it would looked like it would take them a while before they can even come up here. Judging from the scattered guns on the floor, she could guess that most of them were all out of bullets as well.

"Yang! It's time we leave, we already got what we needed," Blake advised.

"Are you trying to say we leave Ruby?" Yang asked in a low tone, her red eyes staring into Blake's.

"What—no. Of course not! I'm saying that once we get Ruby, we leave immediately," Blake denied, a bit worried of Yang's mental state.

"Don't forget the guy who was dragged here for no reason. I feel sorry for the guy if he was just left here..." Sun added to the conversation. He just felt sorry for the guy. After all, he didn't have anything to do with this whole situation.

"Fine, but I doubt 'she' would let us leave easy," Yang pointed towards Neo, who was simply twirling her umbrella in place, smiling excitedly at them.

"...We'll leave that to you. After we get the two, we leave through the window," Blake suggested to all of them.

"Then I guess I'll wait around here, I'm carrying Weiss right now and it wouldn't be a good idea to run around too much," Neptune reminded them.

Weiss wanted to deny that, but her still aching head prevented her from doing so.

The other three nodded in understanding as they now shifted their focus on what was in front of them. Standing behind the diminutive woman, was where the older man was situated. Ruby on the other hand, was at the other edge of the stage, which was a bit further away.

Now knowing each and everyone's position on the stage, Yang took the first move as she sprinted towards Neo, followed by Blake and Sun who were trailing behind her.

Neo greeted the blonde with her usual smile, before swinging her weapon towards Yang. Yang quickly put up her left arm, blocking the hit as she let out a right hook.

The older woman merely shattered into pieces upon the impact, which caused Yang to immediately look around for her opponent's current location.

Blake observed the situation at hand as they ran past Yang, concerned of where their opponent was at.

She didn't have to wonder for long as she suddenly felt a sharp pain around her waist, before she was lifted in the air and flung towards near where Yang was.

Blake clutched her stomach in pain, it was definitely not something she saw coming. But she couldn't stay down now, there was something she needed to do immediately.

"Blake!" Sun yelled out in worry, as he turned back, worried about her.

Just as he did however, the woman was right in front of him, smiling creepily, which caused Sun to instinctively back away. In that instant, the woman spun herself in mid-air, before delivering a roundhouse kick towards Sun.

However, Neo suddenly felt her momentum stopped, as if someone managed to stop her kick. The woman shifted her eyes a bit and was instantly taken aback.

Holding Neo's leg was Yang Xiao Long, a scowl on her face. The blonde went for another punch but was stopped yet again as the woman kicked the brawler in the chin, causing her to lose her grip.

Neo simply backflip away, but something was different with the criminal. She looked ecstatic as opposed to the bemused smile she had the whole time up until this point. It was just an exciting feeling to see that they still had much more to go, especially the blonde. She couldn't wait to play with them more, even if they had no chance of winning.

Yang let out a growl, before she dashed towards the criminal, getting into close confrontations once again.

Assessing the situation, Blake thought it best that she and Yang held her opponent off. This...woman was clearly very strong and as capable as her partner was, it would be best they maximized their chance of escape.

"Go, we can handle things here," Blake mouthed to Sun.

The monkey faunus did as he was told, snatching the man up over his shoulder before running to where Ruby was.

Seeing the monkey faunus run off, Blake decided to join in the fight as she swung her sword while Neo was busy blocking one of Yang's punches.

The sound of metal clashing reverberated in the air as Blake found herself struggling to push away the thin blade Neo had unsheathed.

Realizing the woman was momentarily distracted thanks to Blake, Yang tightened her muscles, before putting even more strength in her right arm.

Neo noticed the slight push back and decided that she should stop indulging them in this futile contest of strength as she simply jumped up in the air.

Without an obstacle in the way, the two stumbled forward until they collided with each other. The results ended up being a very angry Yang being miffed with her partner.

"Watch it Blake!" Yang yelled out, her eyes turning even more crimson than before.

Blake stared at her partner, and realized that she needed to consider her response carefully. Yang was usually a very laid-back person but even she could see that the blonde wasn't exactly in the best state of mind, so it was best she didn't anger Yang any further. After all, it was better for them to work together.

"...You need to calm down Yang. I get that you're frustrated but we're not getting anywhere if we're the ones arguing."

Listening to her words, Yang shook her head, trying to shake off her current emotion. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work but Yang tried her best to control her anger as she replied back.

"...Got it."

With the exchange of words just now, they had completely forgotten about their opponent. It wasn't until Neo suddenly appeared between the both of them that they remembered of the battle at hand. It was too late however, as Neo spun herself along with her weapon, blowing the two away.

Yang stood her ground as she got pushed back. Once she stop sliding backwards, she quickly dashed forward once again, her right arm reeled back in preparation for another attack.

Unlike her partner, Blake was thrown up in the air, before the cat faunus rebalanced herself as she placed her hands on the stage, before backflipping to her normal posture. Once she did, the cat faunus noticed that her partner was already engaging in close combat with the diminutive woman. She had to give it to her partner, Yang was probably the sturdiest out of all of them.

Blake didn't join up with Yang as she looked around the area, wanting to check up on her friends. Neptune and Weiss seemed fine from the looks of it, but was easily discernable that they were worried about them.

The cat faunus then searched for Sun, and when she did was surprised that the monkey faunus was holding both the man and Ruby and nodding towards her, signaling that he got them both covered.

Good. It meant that they were done here. Now, all they needed to do was to escape through the window. The only problem was Yang handling their opponent, who would unlikely let her partner escape and with Yang's still fiery demeanour, she doubted her partner would want to go this easily without releasing her pent up anger. Thus, she was in a dilemma in what they needed to do in order to escape.

Her question was answered as she turned towards the direction where Neptune and Weiss was, and noticed the heiress was pointing upwards, although very feebly.

Blake was understandably confused, until she looked up herself and was confused on what she saw.

There, up in the air, just right below the ceiling was a single glyph floating there, where no one would possibly noticed unless one deliberately focus on it.

Why? Why did Weiss make a glyph up there? The person herself couldn't move so what was the point—

Then it clicked. Blake realized that the heiress was probably trying to suggest for them to use it to end the battle somehow. Blake didn't know if Weiss had the same plan in mind but Blake couldn't dawdle as she put her own plan into motion, changing Gambol Shroud into a pistol.

"Yang!" Blake called out towards her partner as the blonde was pushed back by Neo.

Blake tossed Gambol Shroud towards Yang and held on to the ribbon attached to it as it reached the blonde.

Now in her grasp, Yang was momentarily confused by this action until she suddenly felt her weight was off the ground and was launched into the air as she lost her grip on Blake's weapon. Immediately, she noticed the glyph that was hanging in mid-air and knew what she had to do.

Meanwhile, Blake swung Gambol Shroud once again, only this time it was on a different target.

Neo stood there as she saw the empty space that the blonde occupied only but a few moments ago. Wanting to sate her curiosity, she was about to turn her head upwards to see what was going on but her attention was taken elsewhere as she felt a tug around her both of her arms.

Looking down, Neo saw that her arms were now wrapped tightly by Blake's weapon, with it still swinging as the ribbon overlaid her arms. For any other person in this kind of situation, they would usually be anxious and worried about what was going on, but for Neo, this little stunt only served to amuse her.

The plan was going fine so far but Blake disliked seeing that smug expression on their opponent's face. She disregarded it however as she gazed up to where Yang was, hoping that this will fight will finally end with this next move.

The instant Yang maneuvered herself to land on the Weiss's glyph, she immediately dived back down as she cocked her right arm back, an intense fire around it.

"TAKE THISSS!" Yang yelled out in a booming voice despite the intense speed she was falling at, before she extended her forward, down at her opponent's face.

It was an instant, but Yang saw it. Just as her fist was about to come down, she saw that the woman was just...smiling there, not caring of what was about to occur.

The moment the blonde plunged into the stage, the entire stage was lit with fire as a giant explosion occurred, blowing away the White Fang members who dared to approach it. It was as if the ground itself had shattered into pieces.

The grunts couldn't see anything as right after that explosion, dust was scattered everywhere, obscuring their vision. All they could do was wait for the smoke to dissipate. After several minutes, the remaining members of the White Fang searched around the stage, looking for the young teens.

But all they could see was a very large circle of a bump right in the center of the stage, and pieces of glass scattered all across the area.

* * *

In a small alleyway near the building where the members of the White Fang had gathered, was where a certain group of teenagers had escaped to.

"Everyone made it out alright?" Yang asked out of concern as she looked to Blake and the others.

Now that she had calmed down, her usual lilac eyes had returned and her anger had dissipated, which was a good thing considering her destructive attitude earlier.

"I guess so...if you consider how we look right now to be alright," Blake answered her partner, her eyes trailing off to everyone around.

Each and every one of them looked terrible, from the amount of bruises they had on their person to even blood dripping out from it, specifically Ruby and Weiss. Still, they were nothing compared to what the man they had escaped with as the number of wounds he had were nothing to laugh at.

Sun stared at the man who was laying against the wall, before he looked back towards the group, having something to say.

"I think I should probably drop this guy at the hospital first, I'll meet you guys at Beacon."

Sun then lifted the man over his shoulder, and was about to leave before Blake's voice stopped him.

"Sun! I have...something to say to you later, so I hope you'll listen to me when we get back to Beacon."

"Pfft! I already told you I'll go back to Beacon later, but whatever it is you want to say, I'll definitely be there," Sun answered, letting out a cheeky grin to all of them before he left the alleyway.

"What exactly...do you mean by that?" Weiss asked weakly, her strength not yet returning to her.

"...It isn't just him, it's to every one of you as well. It's about what happened tonight," Blake replied, a solemn look in Blake's eyes.

The others didn't say anything after that as they started walking the streets of Vale, until a certain blonde decided to speak up.

"Hey Blake, I'm...sorry about earlier," Yang told her partner, who was now carrying the still unconscious Ruby in her arms.

While Yang didn't regret being in an angry fit of rage as it was justified in her eyes. She did however regret yelling at her partner as Blake was just trying to help out.

"Don't worry about it, I wasn't at my best mental state today either. Let's just try to move past it, deal?"

"Deal."

"...want to save...get stronger" Ruby muttered in her sleep, which elicited Yang to smile hearing her sister's words.

Ruby's muttering didn't go unheard from the others as well. While they couldn't hear her full sentence, they all could take a good guess on what the young Rose meant. Likewise, they smiled as well. The youngest one of them all always had a way with words, even if she didn't know it.

"I suppose you can say Ruby 'blake' out tonight?" Weiss joked, now that the danger was over.

Blake rolled her eyes at the joke, one Yang was already enough and even said person was not exactly thrilled of Weiss's joke either.

"...Just stick to being the ice queen of the group, it'll be better for all of us," Yang mouthed off, not looking Weiss in the eye.

The heiress looked up towards Neptune, expectations in her eyes as he was the only one left she could turn to defend her badly attempted joke.

Neptune looked downwards, a reluctant look on his face as he begrudgingly opened his mouth.

"Sorry Weiss, but even I don't think that's very good."

Weiss simply turned up her nose as her hair light whipped Neptune in his face, an action which he couldn't say he didn't enjoy, not that he would ever say that to anyone out loud.

Seconds later however, all of them including Weiss suddenly burst into laughter as they were just content that all of them made it out safe and sound.


	26. Unaware

High above in the air, a single bullhead flew in the air, its presence unbeknownst to the living beings below. It was flying at a speed that a normal person couldn't hope to catch up with or even possibly reach.

However, there was a single individual that was standing atop of that dangerously fast vehicle and not only was he standing firmly on it, it was as if it did not affect him at all.

Goku gazed into the red sky, his hair and clothes swaying due to the intense speed he was experiencing. He smiled, thinking that this was a good place to test out something he had been doing for a while.

Frisking his pouch, Goku took out a small white dust crystal and faced towards the opposite direction the transport was taking as he clasped the tiny shard with both of his hands.

Goku concentrated hard as he closed his eyes, feeling the trail of energy flowing from within the crystal to both his hands.

He had thought of it before but each time he used this technique, there was a strange feeling he couldn't quite place about it. He could sense the energy of the dust flowing into him but it was like his body would reject it the instant it was within him. Instead, the energy would only wrap itself around the part where it was held.

Goku opened his eyes once again and saw the same phenomenon that had become the norm for him. A thin veil of wind surrounded both his hands, its particular air current's flow different to the surrounding's.

The monkey faunus cupped both of his hands, steadying himself before he started chanting the name of his primary technique.

"KA...ME...HAA...MEEE..."

A small orb of blue energy formed around Goku's hands, slowly increasing in volume as the martial artist held it in in check, before he pushed both his arms forward.

"HAAA!"

A burst of light blasted forward from Goku's palms as it travelled across the skies, splitting the clouds that were in its path. The force of the blast was so strong that it pushed the transport forward, increasing its speed but due to the sudden momentum, the bullhead was shaking left and right, trying to rebalance itself from the blast as the pillar of energy continued on. Even Goku found himself somewhat struggling to keep his footing while the blast continued onwards.

The stream of light slowly died down with each second passing, until finally disappearing completely. With the sudden shaking passed and gone, Goku looked towards both his hands momentarily before letting out of a sigh, a look of disappointment in his eyes.

"...Guess that didn't work either huh? This is gonna be tougher than I thought..."

While Goku's Kamehameha wave had certainly disappeared, the greenish wind surrounding both his hands did not.

For the longest while now, the martial artist had wanted to combine this technique in tandem with his Kamehameha, perhaps imbuing the wave in some way. It didn't work however, as it seemed like they do not mix at all no matter how many times he tried.

Not wanting to accidentally harm himself, Goku pushed both his arms forward, causing strong winds to burst out from his open palms, which shook the bullhead wildly once again as he did so.

While the transport stabilized itself, Goku was startled by a sudden tapping sound that came right under him. Thinking it was nothing, he was about to ignore it but the noise became increasingly louder, to the point that the martial artist had no choice but to acknowledge it.

The monkey faunus had a good guess what the message of the noise was and decided that he had enough training for now. He then started slowly walking towards the wing of the transport before turning himself upside-down as his tail hung on to one of its wing, before proceeding to knock on the door, signaling the others to open it.

It took only but a few seconds before the door slowly opened itself. As it did, Goku swung his body backward before he threw himself forward as he let go of his tail.

The door closed itself back once he landed on the inside. There, he was greeted by the sight of a slightly annoyed Coco.

"That was...a pleasant ride," Coco stated sarcastically.

The leader of team CFVY couldn't say she didn't see this coming as she already knew the gist of the faunus's plan just before they actually took off for Mistral. It was when Goku instantly jumped onto the aircraft before they flew off. Of course, they did asked what he was up to at the time but all the faunus mouthed off was simple training.

"Really? Guess it kinda was..." Goku answered back, not getting the hint.

She merely stared at him blankly, before continuing on.

"I'm willing to let that comment slide...if you let me do you-know-what," Coco grinned wildly, her eyes only toward the top of Goku's head.

Goku backed away in fear as he covered his hair, not wanting to give her any sort of opportunity.

"Nope, no you can't. I mean, it didn't shake that bad right?"

Coco was about to give another sarcastic comment but the pilot beat her to it as his loud voice rung throughout the entire bullhead from his seat.

"Not that bad? NOT THAT BAD?! You almost made this entire thing fly upside down and we could have landed on who-knows-where? Do you have any idea what the damage could have been to both this aircraft and us?"

Despite the noise and disturbances, there was a certain huntsman sitting right next to the pilot who was blissfully oblivious unaware of what was going on. That was because Port was sleeping soundly in his seat, evident by his periodical snores, which were followed by his twitching moustache.

"It wouldn't be that bad. I'm sure we would all make it out alive somehow," Goku said loudly as he scratched his head nervously.

The pilot felt irritated hearing the faunus's excuse, he was already annoyed when the martial artist was atop the aircraft earlier but disregarded it as Port assured him that nothing bad would occur. Certainly, nothing happened but the fact that it almost transpired was too close for comfort and the constant snoring from Port didn't help calm down his anger either. The pilot was about to turn around and leave his seat to give the monkey faunus a piece of his mind but stopped as a certain hulking person called out to him.

And tall he was. The person wore a green short-sleeved robe, brown pants and a pair of black-and-green boots. He also sported two bracers and the most glaring thing regarding his appearance was the five-layered spaulder situated on his left arm. The enormous brown sword strapped across his shoulder also helped in in accentuating his height.

"I apologize in his behalf sir. Son Goku might say the wrong words at times but I can assure you that it is not his intention to anger you on purpose," Yatsuhashi stated calmly as he stood between the cockpit and the fuselage.

The pilot let out a grunt, reluctantly letting the issue go as he focused back on flying.

"Thanks Yatsuhashi!" Goku said sincerely.

The hulking teen merely nodded at the faunus's words, having nothing more to say at the matter.

"So...since one of my members saved you an earful, I say you owe me a favour now," the leader of team CFVY declared confidently.

"Hey, how come you're the one I owe? Yatsuhashi was the one who helped me, not you," Goku questioned, puzzled at her words.

"Because as the old saying goes, what's yours is mine and what's mine is also mine. And since he's one of my teammates, that means him saving you is also me saving you, got it?"

"Is that really how it goes?" Goku asked quizzically, not fully believing her line of reasoning.

"Well, it's my saying so you just have to deal with it."

Goku sighed, admitting defeat as he realized there was no way to escape and simply gave in to her stubbornness.

"Fine...I'll do it but no messing with my hair, got it? I'm still annoyed by what you did that day," Goku demanded, a look of annoyance in his eyes as his memories returned back to the incident.

"Ain't you cute? But unfortunately for you, I already saw that coming so I got something else for you to do. So, you know how the school's organizing a dance and all that?"

"What dance?" Goku questioned in ignorance, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Hello? The upcoming dance in a few weeks, remember? The time where everyone in Beacon gets to have fun for one night?" Coco reminded him, baffled by his lack of realization.

If it was anyone else, they would have certainly remembered at this point in time, but Son Goku was not like everyone else. That said, he vaguely remembered about being given instructions by Ozpin to keep an eye out on a particular night. Still, every other detail than that was just a blur to the security guard. Perhaps she was talking about that?

"Judging by your face, I guess you do know...at least I hope so. Anyway, for this particular event I need you to come to the dance in a fancy suit got it? Your regular outfit just won't do there. Isn't it a simple request though? Sometimes I scare myself on how nice I am..." Coco trailed off as she nodded her head repeatedly.

"Ehhhh!? Why do I have to wear something like that, those things are really uncomfortable! Plus, I already have other things to do that night; dancing doesn't sound fun either," Goku explained, a small hope in his heart that Coco would change her request.

"Then change it. Even if it is a job given by the headmaster, I'm sure you're flexible enough to make it work given it's you we're talking about. Also, you're dancing and that's final. Otherwise, you're going to owe me much more than you do right now," Coco argued as she let down her pair of shades, enough for Goku to take a peek of her dark brown eyes.

She quickly covered it back before turning around as she started walking towards the pilot's seat, waving her right hand as she did so.

"We'll talk about it more in detail later. Right now, I got something to talk about with our pilot."

Goku was left exasperated and sighed in defeat as Coco left, leaving him alone with the other two. Noticing that a certain someone had not talked even once, the martial artist looked around, and finally found the last remaining member of team CFVY.

There, a few feet away from Goku was a teenage boy leaning against the inner wall of the bullhead, who had been in that exact spot since Goku had jumped in. He had dark skin, and messy copper hair. To complement that, his attire consisted of a sleeveless muted orange zipper vest and a pair of black jeans, with brown, laced shoes.

Goku walked up to the silent member of the team, sizing him up as Goku looked at him from top to bottom.

Fox was a weird person in Goku's eyes, as in for as long as the monkey faunus knew him, he had never talked even once to the martial artist's knowledge. Goku honestly didn't know if Fox was generally like this or was due to the faunus's presence. It was hard to tell considering his eyes were pure white, leaving not much room for observation. The amount of scars around his arm would also give people the impression they should stay away from him.

Not that those attributes had stop Goku. Every time they met, he had tried to have a conversation with the silent teen but received only cold reception from him. However, the martial artist was sure Fox didn't hate him, so that was why he kept on trying!

"I suggest you to tone it down Goku. Fox...is asleep right now," Yatsuhashi advised as he observed the two.

"Really? But isn't his eyes opened right now?" Goku blinked in confusion as he turned around towards Yatsuhashi, who was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room.

"Yes...but that is how Fox is. It would be best you leave him alone as he considers sleep to be one of the more fulfilling aspects in his life," Yatsuhashi explained, having known him for a long time now.

"...Does that mean he was like this every time I talked to you guys?"

"I would like to say yes...but that would be lying so sadly no. He just has very few words to provide and usually like to keep to himself. However, it doesn't mean he dislikes you, he is just reserved. I can at least confidently say that he considers you a comrade."

That certainly gave Goku a sense of relief.

"Come, sit with me Goku. Perhaps you want to join me for some meditating?" Yatsuhashi offered, placing his right hand on the empty spot beside him.

Goku accepted Yatsuhashi's proposal as the faunus slowly walked towards the giant, before sitting himself down. Goku then closed his eyes as he took in the surrounding around him, relaxing his muscle.

"Have you perhaps meditated before Goku?" Yatsuhashi asked, his curiosity piqued.

Not many people knew of this method and to see one so close within the school was surprising. A person's strength did not dictate the know-how, rather a sense of discipline was needed to be able to do it. The fact that Goku was able to achieve it spoke volume of the faunus's character, even more so than just talking.

Wanting to answer Yatsuhashi's inquiry, Goku half opened his left eye-lid as he explained plainly.

"Yeah...it helps me focus sometime."

The martial artist closed his eyes once again, returning to the silence.

Right then and there, Yatsuhashi felt a sort of kinship with the martial artist, even more so than before. He smiled before following suit, the two now in a state of meditation.

Only silence now enveloped within the bullhead, only to be broken when Coco walked in, confused by the quiet atmosphere before she blurted something out.

"Great, who am I supposed to tease now?"

* * *

Goku felt a sudden bump while he meditated. It had been a few hours once he sat down and it had been nothing but smooth flying since then. Still, he felt it was out of place and decided to open his eyes to see what was going on.

As he did, Goku immediately noticed the opening of the door but more importantly, was the lighting on the outside. It was completely dark, which made him realized that it was now night time.

"Oh you're back. If you took any longer I would have had to knock you on the head," Coco joked.

The faunus noticed that she was just right beside him, leaning on the inner wall. Yatsuhashi on the other hand, was still sitting at the same spot from earlier; the same could be said for Fox as well. The faunus stood up, before stretching a bit while asking a question to Coco.

"So, we made it to Haven already?"

Goku remembered passing by here when he was younger, though he never actually went in since he had no business here.

"Where else would we be? Though I can't blame you for asking, everything outside is so dark I can't see a single thing."

"Isn't it because you're wearing those funny looking glasses the reason you can't see?"

Goku never understood why she wore it in the first place; it was neither practical nor useful.

"Why should I? It looks good on me, gotta use every opportunity I got to show off my good looks. That, and I just feel comfortable wearing these, they're...comforting," Coco said fondly, a gentle smile accompanying that statement as she touched her pair of shades.

"Anyway, you go wake Yatsuhashi from his so-called meditating and I'll do the same for Fox, though I have to warn you, it usually takes a lot more than a push to make the guy budge," Coco advised playfully to the martial artist.

"Uh, what about Port? I thought he was sleeping too?" Goku asked curiously.

Even without seeing the person in question earlier, the faunus already knew he was sleeping due to his past experience, which was where he learnt of Port's loud sleeping habits.

"Professor Port? He's already waiting for us outside, so we better get a move on," Coco explained before she started slowly going towards Fox.

The martial artist was somewhat impressed on how gung-ho Port was despite the deep sleep the man was in earlier.

Goku then looked downwards as he observed the hulking teen. The monkey faunus could easily see that Yatsuhashi was still in a deep state of meditation so he did the only thing he could think of to snap the person beside him out of it. Goku reeled back his right arm, before letting a good punch towards Yatsuhashi's head.

The giant opened his eyes as Goku's fist stopped just an instance before it hit. Yatsuhashi could feel the small breeze that the punch was able to generate.

"Did I perhaps do something to upset you Goku?" the hulking teen questioned coolly, willing to listen to the faunus out before making any rash assumptions.

"Nah. Coco just told me it usually takes a lot more than a tap to snap you outta meditation, so I thought this would be the best way to do it," Goku answered truthfully as he reeled back his arm.

"...It's hard for me to say this as Coco is my leader but she was simply misleading you. In fact, a simple tap is more than enough."

While it was true he was ignorant of his surroundings when he is in such a state, physical contact was more than sufficient to bring him back to his senses.

"That's weird. I wonder why she lied to me then?" Goku questioned, his eyes now on Coco who was now standing near the sleeping Fox.

The martial artist didn't feel angered though, just befuddled. Now that he thought about it, Coco always liked to mess around with him all the time, it was probably the same as usual then.

Yatsuhashi kept silent on the matter as he felt that it was for the best that the person in question would answer the martial artist.

"Oh well then, sorry about that Yatsuhashi, I'll try to remember that next time," Goku smiled sincerely, lending a hand towards him.

The giant accepted his offer as he held onto Goku's hand, standing up as a result.

"It is fine. Shall we head out now?"

"But what about Fox?" Goku asked curiously, glancing at Coco's side before returning his focus towards Yatsuhashi.

"You do not need to worry about that, look again," Yatsuhashi assured as he pointed towards the other two.

Goku's confusion was quickly casted away as he witnessed the slapping of flesh on the rear end from Coco, who had a gleeful smile on her face as she did so.

* * *

"So this is Haven Academy huh? This place is almost as big as Beacon!" Goku proclaimed loudly, his hands placed behind the back of his head.

"Indeed, my rambunctious friend. I especially like the designs of the wall here! Why, this reminds me of..." Port trailed off as the four tuned him out.

The five were now inside of the building of Haven Academy, walking along the gigantic hallway. While it was huge, the absence of people made them feel unease. But the more they dwell on the matter, the more it made sense. Considering it was night already, most of the students had probably gone back to the dorms, preparing for the next day at the academy.

"Hey, now that I think about it… what are we supposed to do here?" Goku asked as he stared towards the professor's back.

Port twirled his moustache in silence, before finally answering the young faunus's understandably curious question with a straight face.

"…Even I have no clue."

"Eh!? But I thought you knew about it?"

The martial artist was sure that Ozpin was the one who told him that Port already knew about the details about this venture. So…if the professor didn't know, then did that mean all of them were in the dark about something for once?

"That's why we're going to the headmaster's office right now, it's the only way we get to know specifically what is going on around here," Coco chimed in.

"Quite right…and it seems we are just about to get an answer for young Goku's inquiry."

The five came to a halt as they now stood before a giant wooden door, wide enough that it could even easily fit someone of Yatsuhashi's size. Port proceeded to knock on the door several times, and they all waited for any sort of response.

Fortunately, there was as the sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side. Before long, the door slowly crept opened and revealed a middle-aged man.

Judging from his appearance, the man had a mane of gray hair, his beard the same colour as his hair. His dark brown eyes fitted in well with his tanned complexion.

From his attire, the man wore a necktie over his white dress shirt. The shirt was under a brown great coat that came with a matching mantle. For the bottom of his physique, he wore dark brown slacks and dress shoes.

"Leo, long time no see!" Port exclaimed excitedly as he greeted the man.

The man stared at Port, his face contorting between confusion and sudden realization until it changed to a relieved smile.

"Ah Port, good to see you again, and I see you have brought the others as well. I was wondering when you would arrive...come in come in," the old man beckoned as he turned back to his office.

Port quickly walked in, catching up to his friend. The other four looked towards one another, shrugging before they followed suit.

It was a simple office. Bookshelves were placed on each side of the wall, every one of them filled with books of all kind. In the middle back of the room was a giant table, but despite its size, there were not many objects on it as it contained only a feather pen, a bottle of ink and a nameplate at the front written 'Leonardo Lionheart'.

Adjacent to it was a much smaller one that was stacked with books atop of it, with papers messily spread across the floor. Goku looked around the office, bewildered by the amount of literary material around here. He was never one for reading, nor would he ever be but it was interesting to see the differences between Ozpin's office and here's.

"It has been some time since our last meeting hasn't it?" Leonardo asked as he sat on his chair.

"It truly has hasn't it Leo, why...I think it was during our last Grimm hunt a few years ago. Ah, that was one of the greatest hunt we ever did!" Port exclaimed with pride at the headmaster.

A somber look was on the headmaster's face as he remembered that period of time in his life.

"Sadly, I don't believe we can ever go back to those times. I'm just not the huntsman I was during my prime."

Port slammed the wooden table hard, wanting to refute his old friend.

"Nonsense. I know you Leo...you may back away from time to time but you always pull through in the end!"

Port thought his speech might reignite the flames in his old friend's heart but instead, it sunk him harder as a frown was now on Leo's face.

"...Thank you for saying so, even if they are just mere words."

Port didn't know how to response. The friend he used to have felt so...far apart from his old self. It was concerning, to say the least.

"Uhh...aren't we here for something? I mean, I get you guys wanna remember the old times and all that but wasn't the reason we came here important or something?" Goku cut in, feeling the need to intervene.

Coco elbowed the faunus in the gut. While what he said was true, she was hoping it could have been said with more tact. Still, she silently thanked the martial artist for changing the topic, as it seemed like things might have gotten a bit too intense for their liking.

"Good evening Professor Lionheart. I am Coco Adel, the leader of team CFVY, and just as my teammate have said, we would like to get more info on the task at hand," Coco stated upfront as she took a step forward from the others.

"Ah yes...I suppose we have derailed the real matter long enough, perhaps another time Port."

"Perhaps..." Port muttered, his right hand balled into a fist filled with frustration.

"Now then, let's get to the issue of the matter," the headmaster said, a tired sigh escaping him.

"Isn't it just supposed to be about a dangerous Grimm?" Goku asked nonchalantly, not putting much thought into his words.

"...I wish it was that simple. You see, several week ago there was an incident in one of the nearby villages."

"What kind of incident if I may ask?" Coco questioned the headmaster, not wanting to have any absence of any relevant information.

"A disappearance; every single last one of the villagers just suddenly vanished into thin air overnight," Lionheart answered somberly.

They all showed eyes of shock upon hearing his words, bewildered by such a strange phenomenon.

"How did that even happened in the first place?"

"That's what we want to find out. It was only fortunate that one of the patrols around here were able to spot the state of the village from a distance. Anyway, after being shown the reports, I immediately sent out only a team of students to investigate...that turned out to be the first of my mistakes in this whole incident."

They all stay silent, not liking the implications of his word. However, Port was the one who spoke up.

"And what exactly did happen Leo?"

"...The same as the villagers. They vanished the day they were sent; their Scrolls, their belongings...nothing was left from what we could tell."

Leo stood up from his seat and looked towards the window, his back turned against his visitors.

"And then...I sent another team. To my dismay, the results were...not any different to say the least. I don't know if it was my state of panic or just plain incompetence, maybe even both...but I just—"

Leo didn't say anything anymore and he didn't need to as they all knew what he was implying.

There was a sudden slam on the desk that came from a very irate Port.

"Why didn't you alert the council!? If you have told them—"

"You think I didn't try. Unfortunately, they already have their hands full with more pressing matters according to them..." the headmaster argued back.

"Is that the reason you sought Beacon for help?"

"...I had to. The atmosphere around Haven here was tense...at first, it was just simple rumours but as time went on, the worst it got. Students now being scared, terrified...some have even left in fear of the news. Beacon was the only choice I had to calm my students down."

"Forgive me for saying this Professor Lionheart but why us? Don't get me wrong, I know my team is good and I don't mind doing investigation on sudden disappearance but…" Coco asked cautiously, her mind trying to process all of this.

"Because you students are like hope to all of us at Haven right now. The mere fact that you're willing to help has already put some of my students at ease."

They wanted to believe the headmaster, however it made no sense. There were other academies beside Beacon to seek for help so why were they—

"Oh, so where is this village anyway?" Goku suddenly said out of nowhere.

Everyone in the room stared at the monkey faunus in bewilderment, not fully believing what came out from his mouth.

"Goku?"

"I mean, there's no point in thinking too much about it. We're already here so we might as well try to figure it out! But uh, I suddenly figured out I'm not very good at thinking these things out, so we might have a problem here hehe," Goku laughed lightly as he scratch his head awkwardly.

"Heh, guess you have a point there. Alright Professor Lionheart, where do we have to head out to tomorrow?" Coco asked, now in agreement with their substitute member.

Surprisingly, the one who was most shocked was Leo, eventhough he was the cause of it. The headmaster quickly snapped out of it as he pulled out a Scroll and set it on the table. A holographic image of a map of Remnant popped out from the device, its size sufficient enough for all to see. Leornado pointed towards one of the dots that appeared on the map, before he spoke once again.

"From here, there will be a nearby village known as Sakurasō to the east of Haven Academy. It shouldn't take you any longer than half an hour to reach there. We'll send you a transport right next in the morning, there—"

"Sorry to interrupt Professor Lionheart, but we prefer to travel their by foot if possible," Yatsuhashi stepped in, but none of them stopped him as they were all in agreement.

"What could possibly compel you to do that?"

Now the headmaster of Haven Academy was the one left in confusion, if they were to do that, then a tremendous amount of time would have been lost just getting to their destination.

"Come now Leo, you must know that if the cause of the disappearance come from the nearby surrounding, then it is quite likely we can find clues as well, as small as they may be," Port reasoned, seeing eye to eye with his students.

"Hah...very well. I suppose I should oblige you considering I'm the one pleading for help. For now however, you can all take a good night's rest here at Haven Academy. One of the staff members will guide you there once you are out."

"Thank you Professor Lionheart. We'll head out early in the morning and return with good news," Coco said seriously as she slightly bowed towards the headmaster.

"Please."

They could all tell how tired and weary he was from his tone. Not wanting to bother the headmaster any longer, they took their leave as Coco and the others left the room, except for two people.

Goku glanced towards the now opened door before looking back at Lionheart.

"Don't worry about it old man Leo, we're definitely gonna fix whatever happened."

Having said his piece, the faunus ran out of the room, catching up with the others.

"Old man?" Lionheart muttered out in surprise at the crude description of him.

"Ah that Goku, ever confident...the same could be said for team CFVY as well, but I can promise you Leo that they will see it through for you! I may have no clue on what happened to you not just in these last few weeks but the few years , but I can still confidently say that you are a friend I can trust and to show that, I shall let the matter go as well."

Lionheart didn't know what to say. Words failed him at the moment.

"Now then, I suppose I should go and prepare myself for tomorrow as well. Have a good night Leo," Port said his goodbyes as he too left the office, closing the door.

Now left alone, Lionheart let out a tired sigh due to the conversation just now. There were a lot of things he needed to mull over but there was one more thing he needed to do.

He erased the hologram that was hovering above his table, and as he pressed on the screen of his Scroll, the display suddenly changed which did not surprise Lionheart in the least. In fact, it seemed like he was expecting it to happen.

"Is this truly necessary?" he muttered, his breath so quiet no one nearby could possibly hear him as he stared at his Scroll.

But right then and there, a voice came out from said device.

"More than you know, Leonardo."


	27. Strange Quietness

It was early morning, the day after their meeting with Leonhart. Port and team CFVY were currently walking through the path in the forest, their destination clearly leading to east of Haven Academy. So far, they had been walking non-stop for the past hour. All except for Goku that was, while the others took the straight path, Goku instead travelled by swinging his tail through the branches of trees.

While it was certainly fun seeing the faunus swinging from place to place at first, it quickly devolved into an annoyance for Coco. Trying to ignore him was impossible for her considering how much he moved around.

"Hey Goku, you mind coming down here? It'll be easier if you just walk," the leader of team CFVY called out to the faunus, who was preparing to jump.

Goku stopped his jump mid-way, now hanging onto the branch as he faced Coco.

"Why? This is good training you know, my tail needs to get stronger too!"

"I'm not gonna pretend I get faunus in general but considering how long I've lived with one I really doubt that statement," Coco answered truthfully.

"Hey! That's not true…I even trained here before just to get my tail stronger!"

That certainly caught her attention. Then again, she did in fact know about him travelling the world so she supposed it was certainly possible it happened.

"Before? Was there perhaps a problem with it in the past?" Yatsuhashi asked, curious at the conversation the two had.

While Coco and Port took the lead, he was in the middle of the group followed by a still very sluggish Fox trying to keep up even though most of them had stopped to listen, even Port himself had as evident by him nodding approvingly at Goku.

"Yeah. My tail used to be my weakness, you know? Once someone grabbed it, I became super weak. There were a lot of times that I couldn't do anything in a fight so I decided this was the best place to train."

It was certainly an interesting experience for him. It didn't just take him days but weeks before he could truly remove this flaw. The way he was able to think of a method and go through it was a fun one too!

"And judging by your stupid smile, I guess I can't use that old weakness of yours to my advantage," Coco commented snidely.

"Nope. So there's no way you can beat me in a fight with it!"

"Now, when were we ever talking about a fight in the first place?"

The answer she gave only served to confuse Goku, making him feeling lost. He merely stared at her, putting his hands together as he thought about her words.

"Heh. Forget what I just said, you can jump around all you want…but don't come down whining when you get tired."

"Hehe, I definitely won't," Goku said confidently as he pumped his fist upside-down.

Once Fox finally made it to the group, they all set out once again.

* * *

Several hours passed since then, and their journey was as uneventful as they initially started. Normally, they would consider it fortunate that nothing bad had transpired but it was also because of that exact same reason that they were now at high alert. Even Fox, who was a bit drowsy before was now perfectly keeping pace with the rest of the group.

The group came into a halt as Port placed his hands before them, giving them the signal to stop. Once Goku came down and joined them, Port straightened himself up before facing team CFVY.

"Ahem. As you all noticed, we have travelled on foot for hours on end and... nothing has happened. No Grimm for us to tussle with, no travellers for us to have good laughs with nor are there quests for us to set out on. In fact, it seems everything has been going our way…and that is what is so peculiar about it."

"Yeah. There's also a weird smell that's getting even stronger the more we move," Goku chimed in, giving his input.

"There is? That's...interesting my lad," Port said in a surprised tone as he stroked his moustache in thought.

"What exactly does it smell like Goku?" Yatsuhashi spoke up, thinking that perhaps more detail could help them no matter how small.

Goku thought deeply on it, but he couldn't come to a solid conclusion. Still, he answered the best he could.

"It kinda smells like a Grimm...but there's also something messing with the smell so I can't really tell."

Usually, his trusty nose would be more than enough to sense the presence of Grimm. It was one of his methods of staying alive throughout the years of traveling after all. However, the area they were in was just plain...peculiar. It smelled like one yet it did not at the same time.

"I see. That's unfortunate...but we must press on. I am sure the answers will arrive to us once we get to our destination," Port spoke with confidence before turning his back towards them.

Inwardly, the professor was mulling over the implications what this might bring. He just had a gut feeling of what was going on but without any further evidence, he couldn't quite come to a conclusion just yet. However, this was one of the few times he sincerely didn't want to be right as what he theorised might be a challenge to large for even him and team CFVY combined.

The others merely nodded in agreement as they continued following along.

* * *

"Seems this is the general area of where the village is," Coco suddenly remarked as they now stood before a broken wooden post, which was so unremarkable one might not even notice it.

"It is? But I don't see it anywhere?" Goku questioned as he looked around the area.

They were still very much in the area of a forest, which meant it was the same scenery they had been experiencing since this morning. There was one thing however, the path they had been on finally ended on this very specific spot, meaning if the village really was here, it could be anywhere with how big the forest was.

"Yup, I'm pretty sure. The post over there is a good sign, sadly it doesn't tell us where exactly the village is," Coco answered, pointing towards the broken wooden post before continuing on.

"Alright you guys, I guess we're going to have to split into teams and spread out to look around for the village," Coco ordered to the others.

"Why can't we just go alone?" Goku whined, thinking that one person was more than enough just for investigating an area.

"Well Goku, think of it as more of a precaution. If any one of us was lost due to some unknown reason, we would have no way of contacting them considering our Scrolls don't exactly receive signals here. Two people are much safer than one after all," Yatsuhashi explained calmly.

"What Yatsuhashi said. Either way, even if our Scrolls did work I'm sure I would have done the same thing anyway considering 'someone' here doesn't even have a scroll to begin with," Coco said accusingly, not making an effort to hide who she was talking about.

"Ehehe...those things are really difficult to use. I don't know how you guys even understand them in the first place," Goku reasoned weakly, an awkward smile plastered on his face.

It wasn't as if he never tried using it before. In fact, Ozpin had even provided him with one on the first day of the job. Sadly, he couldn't understand how to use it no matter how much Glynda taught him. In the end, he just gave it back to Ozpin, much to the headmaster's disappointment.

"Anyway, me and Yatsuhashi are going be in a group, which obviously leads you and Fox in another."

"What about Port though?" Goku asked, seeing that professor was seemingly left out in her plan.

"Ah do not worry young Goku. I will be conducting a search of my own and since I am a certified huntsman, I am more than capable of being vigilant at all times," Port declared proudly, confident in his abilities.

"And once one of the group finds the village's location, send a signal so the others can know where you are, got it?" Coco asked, looking to see if they understood.

Each one of them nodded, indicating that they knew what they had to do.

"Good, let's get a move on then."

Not wasting time, Coco and Yatsuhashi set out as they calmly walked into the woods. As they were about to enter into the woods, Coco raised her left hand as high as she could, and gave a thumbs up without looking back. With that, the two was out of sight.

"Oh yes, I suppose I should get going as well. May you all be safe."

Port left to the opposite direction Coco and Yatsuhashi took, now leaving only the two teens alone together.

"Guess we should go too, huh Fox?" Goku asked as he turned towards his temporary teammate.

The only response that he got from his question was sound quietness. It was so quiet Goku was now able to hear the sound of leaves swirling, something he was previously unable to do. Regardless, they needed to get a move on but it seemed to him that Fox was asleep again, which left him stumped on what to do.

Goku thought back to yesterday on the transport, where Coco did a peculiar action to wake Fox up.

Having remembered that moment, Goku immediately took action as he slapped Fox on his behind. The faunus however, forgot to hold back which staggered Fox forward instead of lightly waking him up.

While it had the desired effect, Fox was not exactly happy to being woken up so roughly. It wasn't obvious at a glance but Goku could tell Fox's mood wasn't exactly cheery right now.

"Come on Fox, we gotta head out and find the village."

Fox said nothing as he simply nodded, standing still for a moment. Goku didn't say anything either, he had a feeling that Fox knew what he was doing, though he didn't know exactly how Fox was doing it.

Before long, Fox suddenly started running towards a certain direction, which meant that Goku needed to follow after him. Goku ran as well, picking up the pace until he was at an even distance between the two of them. They brushed past a number of trees and patches of glass for what seemed to be half an hour, until Fox suddenly jumped into what looked like a clearing. The faunus followed suit and once he did, what he saw surprised him.

There laid before the two was a small village. Each building were plainly made out of wood, fields that resembled very much of his owns', only just much bigger. What was more alarming to Goku was the peculiar state it was in. As they were told, there were indeed no people running about but it was the fact that everything seemed untouched was what set the alarms in the martial artist's head. It even looked like the place was still relatively new and clean, untouched in a sense.

There was definitely something going on. However, first things first…

"You're pretty amazing Fox! I can't believe you were able to find this place so easily," Goku praised, amazed with Fox's abilities.

It was true. There was no way he would have been able to find this place on his own. Even during the time he was here, he never encountered a village like this despite the amount of time he spent here. Perhaps the others had a point in saying that two was better than one, although that brought up another question for Goku. Considering their relationships as teammates, the faunus wondered if they knew that Fox would have found this place anyway and simply placed him with the silent teen as they had other plans in mind.

Oh well. He was never going to figure it out anyway if he just kept thinking about it. He supposed it was about time he signalled others. As Goku turned around, he found Fox unmoving once again as he just simply stood there. As bizarre as it seemed, the martial artist was starting to get used to it.

Thus, he walked a bit further away before grabbing the power pole from his back. Goku then placed it on the ground, firmly grabbing on to it before three words came out from his mouth.

"Power Pole Extend!"

As it implied, the pole starting growing in height, extending itself until it was now a great deal higher than the forest.

Goku felt satisfied with its size and decided to leave it like that. He was sure the others would be able to pick up on it the moment they looked up from wherever they were.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, Goku turned around to face the source of the sound. Turned out, it was Fox, who was up and about again, merely staring at the weapon that was now acting a signal for the others.

Goku was about to ask what Fox was thinking about, until Fox answered him before he even had the chance to.

"Investigate," Fox mouthed off before walking ahead, leaving a very surprised Goku stunned, his mouth agape at what he just heard.

"Eh!? You talk!?"

Goku couldn't see it, but there a small smile forming on the Fox's lips.

* * *

On the other side of the forest, Coco and Yatsuhashi were taking a leisurely stroll. Nonetheless, they were still very much vigilant and aware of their surroundings.

"Do you think Fox and Goku were able to find Sakurasō on their own?" Yatsuhashi asked his leader.

"Please, you and I both know that Fox would have been able to find it by now. The guy can pick up sound better than we can after all," Coco answered nonchalantly, her tone suggesting that it was obvious.

"I see. Then if I may ask Coco, what was the point of splitting us up in the first place?"

It was strange, they clearly could have just followed after Fox as a group; splitting up was unnecessary in his eyes now that Yatsuhashi got a bigger picture of it all. He still didn't know what exactly her leader was planning, which he was about to find out.

"Well, remember when Professor Port said there was something weird going around here?"

Yatsuhashi simply nodded, the memory of earlier still clear in his mind.

"I agree with him. So, I thought—what would be the best way to investigate what's been going on around here? Normally, anyone would say the village but I think that's what the other teams before us have been doing wrong this whole time. After all, that's how they all disappeared."

Upon hearing her words, Yatsuhashi quickly realized something.

"Wait, does this not mean Goku and Fox are in danger!? We need to hurry before—" Yatsuhashi said worriedly and just as he was about to turn the other direction, he was stopped by his leader's commanding voice.

"Hold it. They're fine, look," Coco reassured him as she pointed towards the sky, where a red pole was sticking out even from their current position.

Seeing this, Yatsuhashi calmed down...for now. He was still very much apprehensive at the idea of wandering around aimlessly instead of being at the village to protect his comrades, but he was less so than before at the very least.

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't just send those two for nothing. They've got their jobs and we got ours. Besides, from what I heard from Velvet, Goku's even stronger than we first thought. Fox's no slouch after all."

"That could very well apply to the members of the teams before us, yet their fates were the same...Coco, are you perhaps underestimating our current situation?"

Yatsuhashi didn't want to say it out loud, but for as long he knew of her, his leader was the type that was very confident of herself. It wasn't without warrant though as it was this trait of hers that had helped them many times whether it was battles or be on the field. Nonetheless, he worried if his leader would one day fall into the range of overconfidence, which could very well be this very moment.

"...No. I'm taking this as serious as I can. I get it… sometimes I get a bit over my head—"

"Only a bit?"

"Yeah, just a bit. But that's what you guys are here for. That's why you're my teammates. In this case though, I know what I'm doing. And if anything happens, I'll take full responsibility of it."

Yatsuhashi couldn't find the words in him to argue back as he stared into the determined look she exuded. Whenever Coco went like this, there was no convincing her. He sighed, mentally steeling himself that if it came down to it, he would protect all of them to the best of his abilities.

The two came to a stop once they stumbled upon a small area that was visibly different than the other spots in the forest. While the grass in the other places they've been through were lush and abundant, even tall enough to reach their knee, their current location was anything but that. The grass was short, the plants almost non-existent and just looked unnatural.

"You got any idea what happened here, Yatsuhashi?" Coco asked, seeing as he was better proficient at identifying what was going on.

Yatsuhashi squatted down, inspecting the grass to have a good feel of it.

"It appears to be the work of people...it also looks like they are still relatively fresh."

"Great, so we're not alone."

* * *

Port believed he had lived his life well, going out on hunting in his younger days, pursuing that thrill he had always wanted ever since he was a youngling, and now look at him, he was teaching future huntsmen that would ensure the safety of humanity itself! Sure, there were stumbles and problems along the way but anyone would. However, what he was seeing before his very own two eyes managed to make even him worry in cold sweat.

"By the Gods...this is much direr than I could possibly imagine."

* * *

Goku walked around the village by himself as Fox had silently told him that he would be inspecting the insides of the buildings around. Naturally, this meant he was supposed to search around for something resembling of a clue on the outside.

So far, barring the quietness of the place, he had found nothing of note. Sure, the general design of the place was vastly different from the ones' back at Vale but that could be said for the entirety of Mistral as well.

Goku's train of thought was interrupted as he felt a strange sensation at the bottom of his shoes. It felt...softer than before.

The moment Goku looked down, he could instantly tell why. The ground below him looked as if it had been dug before, and it wasn't a small one either. From the size of it, it seemed to take up a quarter of the size of the village.

Goku sniffed the air around him, and slowly but surely recognized a smell from right under him. It was faint, but he could pick it up with his nose. It smelled...terrible.

This sealed the deal for him. Something was definitely going on just right under him and he was determined to find out. Just as Goku outstretched his arms to start digging, he stopped as he sensed someone nearby.

"You done over there Fox?" Goku asked as he turned around to face his friend.

The problem was, it wasn't Fox. Instead, it was a group of people dressed in rough clothing, each one of them armed with a weapon ranging from guns to daggers or even swords. From the looks on their faces, they certainly didn't look like the local villagers either.

Goku scratched his head in confusion, still unable to comprehend on what was going on, until one of them utter two words loudly.

"Shoot him."

At the call of his command, each one of the men shot several rounds towards the martial artist.

Goku stood still before the storms of bullets coming at him, his eyes tracking their every move. Not taking his eyes off, Goku quickly dodged every one of them with speed and agility, none of them even coming close to hitting as they flew past by him.

"Hey, you guys should be careful with that! Bullets can hurt someone you know," Goku lectured once the bullets stopped coming, annoyed at their attempt trying to hurt him.

They were simply stunned at the faunus's display. That was, until a commanding voice came out from one of them, this time in the voice of a woman.

"What are you all waiting for, just shoot him again."

They heeded her words, while Goku steeled himself once again, this time preparing to take them all head-on. Before they even had the chance to start however, they were interrupted as they heard a sudden scream of pain within their group.

All of them looked towards the source of the scream and found a single teen amongst them, who was holding out his left arm before a fallen man.

Before they could even react, Fox spun himself forward as he kicked some of them away. Just as they fell atop the others, he used the chance to slip passed the gap they now formed. He wasn't out of danger just yet as two of them were just about to strike him with their own weapons but missed entirely as Fox simply slide right under their swings.

The moment he got out from the group, Fox somersaulted himself forward until finally, he landed right beside the martial artist.

Goku grinned from ear to ear at his friend's performance, before placing both his arms on his hip as he decided to ask what exactly was going on at the moment.

"Any idea who these guys are? They look really rude!"

"Bandits."

"Really? They don't look like it to me...oh well, guess we're gonna talk later after we take care of these guys," Goku replied as he put up both his arm, readying himself.

Fox did the same as well, the blades attached to both his arms protruding outwardly.

The group before them were evidently frustrated by what had just transpired. They were about to charge into frenzy before an audibly commanding voice came out from their own group.

"Stop. now. Losing your patience to a bunch of children is already embarrassing enough."

The two were immediately sent into a state of alarm as a domineering figure stepped out from the crowd, and they could easily tell that the person now standing before them was the leader of this group.

It was easily discernable from the way the person carried herself. The cut black and red dress, the multiple numbers of necklaces warn around the neck, with a black sheath hanging around her left hip. But what really sent Goku and Fox over the edge was the full-face mask that eerily resembled that of a Grimm.

Goku stared at the figure in front of him, before loudly asking a question.

"So you're the strongest one here huh?"

"Perhaps you would like to find out yourself," she said simply, unmoving.

Goku grinned confidently before he leapt forward in a quick blur. None of the people behind her could possibly see it, and before they had even realized, the faunus was already just a step away from their own leader.

Goku reeled in his right arm just as she was within his range, preparing to strike. But if the martial artist was fast, then the leader of the bandits was even faster. In a blink of an eye, she unsheathed her sword and slashed the faunus across his chest before finally, turning her back towards him in only one swift movement.

That was why the instant his fist was about to come into contact with his opponent, Goku could feel a sudden sensation of pain across his chest.

In just a single second, he was blown away with a great deal of force behind it, until he landed on the spot a few metres away from Fox.

Fox stared at his friend's fallen state, shocked at what he just witnessed.

"Hmph. A weakling after all," the leader stated simply, unimpressed.


	28. Strong and Weak

An atmosphere of silence loom ed over the village, as no one, not Fox, not even the bandits themselves had yet processed what had just occurred. However, that soon disappeared as the bandits went into a loud outburst, consisting of confident boasts and praises for their leader.

"That's our boss for ya! Haha, look at that stupid brat now, there's no way he's coming back from that."

"Nah. I bet he's dead at this point, it was the boss after all."

"Still, one of them is right there. I think we gotta give him a good welcome for what he did to us earlier."

Fox tensed up hearing one of the bandit's words, realizing that he would be the one left to deal with these criminals. Though it would be a difficult task to fight while protecting the faunus, he was sure—

"Yeowch! That really stung all right," the groaned voice of one Son Goku came out, surprising everyone in the vicinity.

Before any one of them could even respond, the faunus stood right back up, like nothing happened at all as he dusted off his clothes. Once he was done, the faunus flashed an excited grin at the woman, beaming at what happened earlier.

"That was pretty fast! Though I can tell you were still holding back. Guess I should get a little more serious if we're gonna fight."

After he announced that, Goku threw the holder that usually held his pole onto the ground, which the rope was already cut due to the slash before. He then started stretching his legs, rolling his shoulders in a nonchalant manner but his eyes never stopped gazing at the leader of the bandits.

The masked woman didn't respond however, merely observing the martial artist while her group stood there, unknowing of what their next course of action was.

While Fox was relief that Goku was alright, he was still unsure on what exactly was going through Goku's mind.

For a moment, he could see a flash of seriousness in Goku's eyes as the faunus spoke, glancing at him from the side.

"Hey Fox, you think you can handle the other guys alone? Something tells me I'm gonna be busy fighting that boss person," Goku said in a hushed tone, one only he and Fox could hear.

Honestly, if Fox could tell from the current situation, it was not in their favours. Not only were their opponent's numbers great, and eventhough he was able to get away from them easily enough earlier but...he had a feeling that it wasn't everything they had shown yet.

Nonetheless, he still gave his answer in the form of a nod, signalling to Goku he could handle it on his own.

Seeing this, Goku grinned and the two returned their focus on the group before them.

"Are you done? I don't have all the time in the world for the weak," the masked woman called out, still indifferent towards the situation.

"Heh. So I'm weak huh?" Goku said in a low whisper, putting up a battle stance.

In a blink of an eye, the martial artist disappeared at the spot as he leapt towards at his opponent once more, repeating the same motion he did before, only this time even faster.

Despite the faunus's quick movement, his opponent was still able to perceive his movement as she responded in kind. Perhaps it was the way she fought or even out of whim, the faunus didn't really know but instead of directly charging at him, the masked woman simply removed her sword from its scabbard and flicked her sword.

It was the strangest of things to both Goku and Fox, as the moment she did such a thing, a swirling vortex inked in darkness appeared out of thin air beside her.

Not taking any chances, Goku immediately changed course by planting both his feet firmly into the ground, twisting his ankle as he went into another direction.

The instance of shifting his focus soon turned out to be a mistake, as the woman was already one step ahead of him, her person now already upon him, her blade already being swung downwards.

Unlike earlier, the martial artist was prepared this time around as he put up both his arm, steeling himself.

The hit was quick yet strong, but was unable to seriously harm the martial artist as he was only pushed back a bit.

The masked woman was undeterred by this as she simply rushed in, her blade at the ready.

Goku responded by giving her the same courtesy as he too joined in, preparing to retaliate right back at his opponent.

The first one to strike was the leader as she slashed horizontally. Goku was able to narrowly dodge it at the last moment, ducking under the swing as strands of his hair flew into the wind. He immediately countered back by delivering an overhead kick. However, the swing was met with nothing but air as his opponent backed away before it even hit.

Goku eyed her carefully as neither of the two moved. From the short exchange earlier, he could tell that she was hiding a lot more power than what was being shown on the surface. Quite honestly, if this keeps up, he would be quickly put down.

Despite knowing his opponent's strength, he couldn't help but smile at the prospect of fighting such a strong opponent. He just couldn't contain it. There was a certain sensation that he hadn't felt in quite a long time, and it just wouldn't go away no matter what he tried. Sure, for the few months he had stayed in Beacon, he had fought various types of opponent, from his best friend to Grimm capable of taking a form of himself. There was no denying that every one of them was very much strong in their own right.

However, all of them paled in comparison to the individual before him right now. Thus, even with his excitement going on he couldn't afford to be careless around her. One misstep could be the end of him.

Goku outstretched his right arm towards the pouch around his waist, but just as he did, the bandit leader immediately acted by slashing her sword in the air, creating a crescent-shaped energy wave and it headed straight for him. Goku quickly forego the idea of searching for a dust crystal as he dodged to side, avoiding the attack…

...Only to be greeted by the sight of his opponent, who was about to reach him upon seconds of landing on the ground.

Yup, there was absolutely no way for him but to pull everything he had against this person.

Those were the general line of thought the martial artist had as he clashed with the bandit leader once again.

* * *

While the two individuals were kicking up a storm from their battle, Fox kept himself busy with the multitude of bandits rushing towards him.

He ducked as an axe swung right above him, before he swept his opponent in the legs, knocking the bandit over. It wasn't over however, as more men came rushing in, having no qualms of putting him to sleep...permanently.

He spun himself in an instant, the blades attached to his arm striking everyone within range as degrees of cuts and gashes formed on their chests, before some of them were knocked down, falling flat in their faces in one fell swoop.

Witnessing this, most of them backed away in apprehension. Despite that, Fox was still surrounded by them and from what he could tell, eventhough they were observing him carefully now, preparing to charge towards him at any given moment.

He stood there motionless, waiting for any sudden movement from the opposition. No matter who would come, he was more than ready to take any of them on now that he had fought them for a while. Perhaps he could settle this quickly and get back into his daily routine...

Then he heard it; the swinging of a metallic object coming right at him.

Instead of dodging, he decided to meet it head on by slashing thrown weapon downwards, the sound of metal clashing echoing throughout the area as the object crashed to the ground. While Fox was able to deflect it easily enough, he didn't have the forethought that the object just now was merely a decoy as something hot shot him right in the chest.

He stumbled a bit as he grasped his chest in pain, but fortunately it was nothing serious as the sting slowly faded away.

"Not bad...but you're still pretty much an amateur if you couldn't even see that coming."

It was the voice of a woman. He couldn't quite make out the features but he was absolutely certain that this person was the one who commanded her group to take another shot at Goku.

"I'll be taking this brat on. Mind making sure he doesn't escape in case he gets any other ideas?" she asked the group as she picked off the weapon that was thrown earlier.

The group of criminals all too easily complied with her request; no…perhaps command was more accurate. From the way she handled herself, Fox was starting to think the woman before him was the second-in command of this group.

And if she was, then it meant she was probably the strongest after their leader, meaning if he could get passed by her, then he should easily be able to deal with the others.

Judging from the lack of movement around them, it seemed that they would not interrupt the fight that was about to ensue, probably because they might harm their own ally. Still, he didn't put it past them that given the chance, they would strike him down without any hesitation.

Nonetheless, he positioned himself in a battle stance and waited for his opponent to make the first move.

And she did.

He heard the sounds of footsteps approaching and immediately put up his guard. There was a sudden snag as he could feel his blades being clamped by two sharp objects on each one of them, very much not unlike of his own.

He was momentarily confused by such an action but quickly understood her intention as the woman lifted him up in the air, until he was suddenly thrown overhead.

Naturally, he was about to manoeuvre himself for a safe landing, but was unable to as barrages of shots were fired from the woman, each one of them not missing its target.

Fox crashed onto the ground hard, but was able to get up despite the pain coursing through him. It wasn't the fall that was painful, it was the shots. It proved to be difficult for him to move his body efficiently for this very reason. He didn't know how, but the bandit was able to hit at the precise locations in his body required to cause this.

"Well well… that ended quicker than I thought, and here I thought you would actually be worth something," she said mockingly, a smug smile on her as she slowly walked over.

He, on the other hand, had no intention of losing this fight just yet as made a straight dash towards her.

The woman only smiled even further seeing this development, for it meant that this fight wasn't a total waste of her time.

She threw her weapon once more into the air, the metallic weapon spinning as it head towards its target. While he was focusing on that, she lifted up her other weapon, preparing to shoot the instant his focus wavered.

Fox backflipped into the air as the projectile flew right passed him. The bandit caught on quickly as she aimed at where he was headed. Unlike before however, where he was falling straight towards the ground, this time around he was directly above her head, which made it hard for her to take a shot.

She clicked her tongue in frustration, annoyed at this predicament. Still, he was only prolonging the inevitable.

He landed right next to her, and before she even realized it, he blitzed right through her as he slashed her twice, disarming her weapon in the process.

The woman fell to her knee from the sudden pain, her breathing becoming ragged as she turned towards the young man.

He was tensed at the moment, noticing that the group of bandits surrounding looked ready to jump in any second now but kept himself calm and collected as he stared towards the woman.

"Heh, not bad at all. But in the end, you're still just an amateur."

His eyes widen in realization as he quickly turned around. Unfortunately for the huntsman-in-training, it was already too late as the bladed weapon crashed towards him, knocking him down before returning to its wielder.

Realizing he was in a pinch, Fox tried to stand up once more but was unable to as the woman shot him in the arm, a burning sensation coursing through the area that was hit.

Noticing Fox's defeat, the bandits all cheered at their superior's victory. Their superior on the other hand, had a very satisfied smile on her as she looked downed the fallen form of her opponent.

* * *

On the other side, two individuals were clashing with each other non-stop, the two were nothing but a blur to the untrained eye.

Goku groaned in pain as another one his opponent's strike cut through his skin. While the two were comparable in terms of speed, the length of her katana puts her at a better advantage. Thus, the martial artist was struggling to even get a hit despite his best effort.

"Jeez, you're really strong. Makes me excited to get even stronger than I am right now," Goku complemented as he dodged another one of her strikes, beads of sweat falling off his face.

"Your ideal perception of strength is far removed from mine," she stated simply, while continuing her efforts in slashing the faunus.

Between the two warriors, Goku was the one clearly worse for wear. From how tattered his clothes were to the various cuts that were all over his body, he was losing.

He needed to come up with something if he wanted to turn the tides of this battle, and he had just the idea.

"Oh yeah? Then I guess I'll just have to show you my own strength don't I?" Goku said as he quickly backed away.

The masked woman merely sheathed her weapon, ready to strike the moment he made his next move.

Goku jumped kick towards her, but was effectively stopped as she simply put up her guard with the steel of her katana. He wasn't finished just yet as he used the weapon she held as a platform, leaping off towards the opposite direction.

The direction where his power pole was placed.

The masked woman quickly gave chase as she sprung forward, right on his trail.

Goku outstretched his left arm, and grabbed onto the pole, before swinging himself over it. The bandit was directly in front of him after the faunus swung over, and held up her guard as he kicked her away.

Goku changed his pole back to its original size before running to the still airborne opponent, aiming his pole at her.

"Extend!" Goku yelled, charging forward as fast as he could.

The pole extended itself, heading towards his opponent. The masked woman didn't let up her guard at all, simply allowing things to take place as the pole pushed her out from the area of the village and into the forest.

Goku lifted himself off the ground as he grabbed onto the pole, contracting its length from his side to close the distance between them.

Once he entered into the forest, he could feel the other end of his weapon was now weightless, which meant that his opponent was no longer at the receiving end.

Goku jumped to one of the tree branches, holding out his power pole with both his arms as he looked around, anticipating the masked woman's next move.

It was quiet, eerily so. He didn't hear any sort of footsteps nor did he see her figure anywhere as he started jumping from one branch to another.

He was however, sure of one thing; she was definitely watching him.

Suddenly, he spotted a shadowy figure diving right at him from above. The faunus reacted by meeting it face-to-face as he jumped towards it.

The moment his power pole met with the woman's katana, the entire forest shook from the impact as dozens of branches fell to the ground.

Neither of the two were winning nor losing against one another. They stared off silently at each other, and instantly knew what the other was thinking.

The two hovered in the air for a moment, before breaking off contact as they fell onto one of the branches that were strong enough to still be attached to its trunk.

He wasn't about to stop just yet as the martial artist bended his leg a bit, and leapt towards his opponent. The masked woman did a similar action as well, holding the handle of her blade as her hair flowed wildly in the wind.

They collided once more, sending a shockwave throughout the entire area. Instead of retreating, both of them quickly strike each other with their respective weapons as they fell, neither one letting up in their assault.

They jumped into the air the instant they touched the ground, as the two quickly jumped right back up onto the branches.

Now that he had his trusty power pole back, it seemed like he was able to even the playfield. Still, he wasn't exactly the better fighter either seeing as his opponent was not exhausted in the least.

He tensed as the woman unsheathed her sword, anticipating another attack from her. But what came out next however, was a weird occurrence to the martial artist.

The masked woman slashed heavily into the air, so much so the air pressure from the strike alone was enough to blow the leaves away.

With the fallen leaves obscuring his vision, Goku quickly pushed them away with a swing of his own. Once the leaves flew to another direction, the faunus noticed that his opponent had vanished entirely.

"Hey! Where did you disappear to? I thought we were fighting!" Goku yelled loudly.

The only response he received was dead silence, and a strange black bird flying from afar. It looked entirely out of place but the martial artist disregarded it as it had nothing to do with the fight at hand.

Well, it was worth a try.

But now he had a problem. How exactly was he going to find his opponent amidst the hundreds of trees around here?

He supposed he could search around, jumping from branch to branch but just as quickly disregarded the idea as he found it a useless venture and a waste of stamina.

Just as the faunus continued to be in a state of thought, a peculiar sound alerted him from behind. Instinctively, he jumped to the side, and turned his head toward the source.

His eyes widened in shock as a crescent shaped energy blade was unleashed, similar to the one before. However, the sheer size of it utterly trounced the first one by being even taller than the trees themselves, but that was not all, for it cut through anything in its path as it traversed through the forest.

Goku was at awe seeing the scene before him. Right in front of him, a narrow path was formed just like that. No grass, no trees, only the ground was laid bare for him to see.

Of course, the attack didn't go all the way through but it was still nonetheless impressive to the faunus, for there was not a lot of people he knew that was capable of such a feet and the ones that did still took a strenuous amount of effort to do so.

It was almost unnatural how easily it was done.

"Do you see now? It's futile for you to fight. The strong will survive and the weak will perish. In this case, you will be the one to fall if this goes on. So, why not just give in to fate?"

Despite not being in sight, her voice was strong and protruding.

"You say that, but those bandit guys aren't very strong either."

"...even so, they are my family. An exception."

"Family huh? Makes me wonder how Ruby and Yang are doing...knowing them, they're probably getting into trouble again," Goku said, scratching the back of his head at the thought of the two.

There was a sudden pause from the woman as several seconds went by in total silence. Goku was deciding whether or not he should continue talking or fighting until the woman's voice came out once more.

"I see...I suppose I should change my advice. If you give up now, you can leave with your friend alive, no complications added."

Goku thought about it for a split second, and quickly came to a conclusion as he gave an answer.

"Nope. Sorry but I seriously can't do that and neither can my friends. We're still trying to figure what happened to the people in that village. I was about to find something out but you guys attacked me out of nowhere! You know, bullets don't kill me but they still hurt a lot," Goku explained, a tone of annoyance laced in his words.

"Umm, you guys don't happen to have anything to do with it, do you?" Goku asked as he let out a half-hearted laugh.

"You know who we are, and what we do at that."

"Oh yeah, bandits...but somehow I don't get the feeling you guys had anything to do with it. It's weird."

The masked woman didn't respond, simply awaiting the faunus to continue.

"It's strange you know? Fighting you kind of reminds me of someone...and it's not just because you two are really strong either, there's also something really similar between the two of you yet at the same time, completely different."

Now she was mildly intrigued. From the individuals he had named earlier, she could almost certainly tell who the martial artist was implying but decided to ask just for assurance.

"And who would that be?"

"His name is Qrow. He's an uncle I used to spar with all the time, though I've never won a match against him," Goku said, reminiscing fondly on the drunkard.

"...This will be the last warning. Leave and none of you will get hurt...any further."

"Hey, I thought you said it was an advice! At this point, I think you might be lying to me, because you keep changing your words. Still, my answer is no. So come on, let's continue our fight, I'm just getting warmed up!" Goku yelled out as he stood in a pose, grinning at the idea of continuing the battle.

"So be it."

In a flash, the woman pounced from one of the trees and dived right towards the faunus. Goku, having no time to escape, quickly put up his pole against the incoming attack.

It felt like a tornado was coming at him. Even with his guard up, both his arms were pushed back as the blade contacted with his weapon. It didn't take long for them to linger like that as the branch beneath him snapped in half and pushed him down along with her.

Fortunately, Goku was able to avoid most of the impact as he was able to slide away just before they crashed onto the ground.

He touched his cheeks, noticing a cut was formed from the hit just now. He then wiped it off, his eyes focused on his opponent.

There, a few distance away from him were trails of dust being kicked up just behind the bandit, who was glancing at him for a split second before disappearing into the trees once more.

Goku placed himself on another branch, giving a deep breath before redoubling his efforts at the battle.

Thus, the second stage of their fight had begun.

* * *

"Nothing personal kid, it's just how we do things," the woman said as she aimed the gun towards Fox's head.

The bandits surrounding them looked at the scene before them with excitement and vigour, all too happy to see Fox being put down like an animal.

Just before the trigger of the gun was clicked, a surprisingly loud voice came out from nowhere.

"Oh yeah? Then I guess you wouldn't mind bullets hole in your everywhere!"

Storms of bullets flew in the air, knocking a portion of the bandits down before it finally went in the woman's direction. She quickly backed away, deflecting the bullets as she yelled out a command towards her group.

"Scatter!"

The bandits did just that. While some were hit in the barrages of bullets, most of them were left unscathed and were still in fighting condition.

"Tch. Still have a lot of these guys wandering around, this is seriously going to be a pain in my behind," the person known as Coco complained as she walked up to the fallen Fox.

"At least we were able to protect Fox in time, that is what is important," Yatsuhashi chimed in, just right beside his leader, both his hands holding the handle of his sword tightly, ready to repel any attackers that dared get close to them.

"I don't know...what do you think Fox? We got here right on time didn't we?" Coco asked in a mischievous tone as she ducked down to her comrade's level.

"Late," Fox answered simply, impassive but was glad to see his teammates nonetheless.

"What do you mean late? Me and Yatsuhashi came hauling the moment we noticed Goku's stick disappeared. Speaking of the guy...where is he?" she questioned as she looked around but found no sign of the martial artist in the vicinity.

"Battle. Very strong opponent."

"Huh...so these aren't the only guys we have to take on," Coco said, her gaze fixed on the woman.

Noticing that she was being stared at, the woman decided to chime in on their conversation.

"Oh you have no idea. Though it is impossible for that Goku person to ever match our leader," she answered from afar.

"Eh. I wouldn't count him out just yet. If there's anything he's good at, it's fighting. Now I have a question for you, were you the ones who cause the disappearance of the people in this village?"

Coco honestly didn't expect an answer coming out from the woman, though what came out was suspicious to say the least.

"I'll be frank, I have no idea what you're talking about. And even if I did, it wouldn't matter anyway considering what's about to go down in a few minutes."

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear. This just means Team CFVY gets to wreck you right down and under, just the way I prefer," Coco proclaimed confidently, smirking confidently.

The woman didn't respond, merely amused at Coco's antics.

"Hey Fox, do you think you can fight in your condition?" Coco asked him as she glanced sideways, but never losing her focus on the woman.

She was honestly worried about him. She didn't show it, but Coco wanted him to stay out of this fight if possible. However, they weren't given much leeway with the opponents they were dealt with, seeing that one of them was able to push Fox to this point.

"Fine."

Fox stood up slowly, but stumbled halfway, eliciting concerned looks from his teammates.

"Don't overextend yourself. I am more than capable of covering our backs if the need arises," Yatsuhashi said in concern, looking out for his friend.

Fox nodded in understanding. This didn't mean that he wouldn't do the same for the other two if it as required even in his current state.

"Alright then guys. Whatever we do, we're sticking together got it?"

The two nodded, awaiting her command as she continued on.

"Yatsuhashi, you'll be at the front, with me in the middle and Fox at the back. We're changing straight towards the hag that clearly has no sense of fashion. We take her out, and the rest will fall like dominoes."

All of them got into position, which did not go unnoticed by the bandits as the woman spoke once more.

"You done planning yet? Not that it would help considering you three are surrounded," the woman said condescendingly, not even worried.

The only form of respond she got from the hunstmen-in-training was a loud battlecry as they charged at her.

The bandits didn't even need to hear their superior's command as they rushed towards them, having every intention of harming them as much as possible.

Yatsuhashi ploughed through them as he swung his blade heavily, sweeping the bandits off the ground towards the oens that dared to get in his way.

However, this action left his guard open, something the woman picked up and took advantage of as she opened fire.

But just as the shot was about to hit him, it was repelled back by the storm of bullets coming at her direction. The woman clicked her tongue in frustration as she dodged most of the bullets.

"Don't even think about it," Coco said with a smirk, but found her attention shifted as a bandit tried to strike her from the side.

She smirked as her minigun transformed back into a purse, and sent him flying into the air as he hit his chin from below, before striking him down with the same item.

The ground cracked as the bandit crashed onto the ground, now knocked unconscious due to her strength.

She decided to analyze the situation at hand and glanced at her teammates.

Yatsuhashi was doing fine on the front as most of his opponents weren't able to even get close to the giant. Fox on the other hand, seemed to be doing just fine despite his injuries. The silent teen kept the bandits from hitting their backs, which meant that formation was still very much intact.

Now where exactly was their target?

She got her answer as a stray shot headed towards her. She blocked it with her purse, a scorch mark now on it as it got hit.

Coco scowled at the woman, who was back to being as confident as ever. Honestly, she wanted to wipe off that condescending attitude of the woman's but she calmed herself, getting irritated wasn't going to help at the moment. Still, it looked like it would be difficult to actually catch the woman considering the bandits weren't letting up in their assault. The fact that the bandit was being smart and using her subordinates didn't help either.

This was definitely going to be more troublesome than she first thought.

* * *

"Blast it all! Where could those lads and lass gone to? I could have sworn I've seen young Goku's weapon standing high up in the air just a moment ago!"

Port was running through the thickets of grass, desperately trying to search for any signs of team CFVY.

He was very worried. Despite team CFVY's and Goku's strength combined, that 'thing' was not meant to be taken on with such a small team.

How could he be so careless?! The signs were all there; from the overnight disappearance of the villagers to the none-existent sighting of Grimm.

It wasn't a coincidence for them not to have encounter any creatures, instead the Grimm were all forced into hiding.

To think that 'it' was here of all places...he had no time to think about it too much, for he needed to search for them quickly, and hopefully still safe and sound.

Then, he stopped as a sudden growl emerged from behind him.

Port stiffened, slowly turning his head around as not to elicit any sudden movement from the being but grasped his weapon all the same.

Once he did, all he could see was darkness as something came out from within the woods.

* * *

Goku leapt out of the way as another one of his opponent's strike cut the branch he was standing on, before launching himself towards a place to stand on.

This had been going on for quite some time now.

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't figure out the trick behind her disappearing act. Every time he was certain he caught her just before she was even able to attempt such a thing, she still escaped his notice anyhow.

The fact that she was relentless in her assault didn't help either. Still, even if he couldn't find out the trick behind it, he had another plan in preparations.

The masked woman struck from above, her blade ready to strike. Instead of dodging to the side like he had done for the past minutes, he chose another option.

Up.

Goku jumped as high as his legs would allow him, zipping right past his opponent and going above the trees before finally stopping in the air.

His eyes widened in awe at the sight in front of him. From his height, he could even see where Haven Academy was. Not getting distracted by the scenery, Goku turned his attention to his opponent.

She wasn't too far behind as she was currently blasting towards right at him from below, something the martial artist was counting on.

If he couldn't find her, then he just had to lure her out.

There was also another reason for doing such an action.

Just as she was about reach him, Goku quickly held out both his arms and spread his fingers around his forehead, closing his eyes tightly as he yelled out the name of a particular technique.

"Solar Flare!"

A strong light flashed from the martial artist, which slowed down the bandit's ascent due to the brightness of it all, but wasn't enough to entirely stop her.

It lasted for a single instance but it was more than enough for the faunus to take advantage of the situation.

Goku dived down and delivered a good punch, sending her in a spiral as she tumbled downwards. He wasn't finished just yet, as he took hold of his power pole.

"Extend!"

Goku aimed the weapon at the woman and it extended itself, slamming the woman right in the gut as it pushed her downward.

Despite the sudden thrust, the masked woman was able to manoeuver herself out of it as she now stood atop of the pole.

Goku wasted no time to dive towards where his opponent was.

Thus, the woman steadied herself, for one slip and she would be sent tumbling down. As the faunus got in close, she slashed with her blade but the martial artist was able to escape by spinning over the pole and readied his fist.

She ducked under the strike and proceeded to continue her earlier attempt, only for the faunus to dodge it once more before he got in close and thrust an open palm at her.

She didn't so much as budge as the metal blade blocked his attack. Goku didn't relent however, as he continued his flurry of punches and kicks, with his opponent retaliating in turn.

This exchange lasted only for a moment, but was no less intense.

However, it quickly came to an end as Goku's power pole hit the ground. Due to the sudden stop in momentum, both fighters were thrown off the staff and into the air.

But their fight wasn't over as the two continued to struggle for dominion.

Goku gave a good punch at his opponent, but not only was it blocked by the steel of her blade, she retaliated on her by delivering an axe kick on the faunus, accelerating his fall.

Her kick shot him towards where his staff was and it fell entirely as the faunus crashed onto it, the pole visibly returning to its normal length.

A small dust cloud was formed by the impact earlier, hiding the faunus within it. The masked woman merely looked on, before noticing abrupt movement beneath it. She pulled out her blade, slashing at the air as the wind generated from her strike blew the dust away, allowing her to assess the condition of her opponent.

The problem was, she couldn't. The individual that was supposed there was anything but that, and so was his weapon.

She then heard multiple noises around her, and decided to take a look. As she did, she immediately took notice of the multiple images of the martial artist in various poses, encircling her.

She wasted no time at all as she swung her blade in multiple directions, the force from her strikes alone were enough to destroy them all in an instant.

However, it seemed that every one of them was just a distraction, prompting the masked woman to speculate where the actual one was...

"HAAA—"

She snapped towards his voice and saw him. There, far away from where she was situated was Son Goku. The young martial artist was clasping both his hands back, a small blue orb forming around it as he glared at the woman.

"MEEEEE—"

The sphere slowly but surely expanded in size, pulsating wildly as it looked ready to fire. However, Goku did not unleash this technique, only standing still as he allowed it to continue charging.

Seeing this, the woman simply dived into the shadows, disappearing right before Goku's eyes.

However, the faunus didn't panic as he stood completely still, closing his eyes as he tried to hear everything around him.

No sound echoed throughout the forest, sans the noise the blue orb was emitting as it fluctuated in size. Nonetheless, Goku couldn't pick out anything of the ordinary.

Then, something stirred.

The woman came from behind him, her blade ready to strike as she easily closed the gap between them. The faunus had no time to turn around, nor react as the masked woman unsheathed her blade.

Aimed at his head, she swung the katana towards the faunus, the cold steel getting ever closer by the second. What happened next however, completely took the masked woman by surprise.

The moment it was just about to strike him, the faunus...

Fell.

Her blade swung into nothingness while her body moved forward. Time seemed to stop as she took a glance below her, and instantly realized her mistake.

Right under her was a small furry tail wrapping itself on the branch, which meant the faunus was swinging around the branch.

The moment she realized it, she quickly turned around to face her opponent, intent on striking him down. However, she was a second too late as the faunus was already right in front of her as she turned, the proximity between them almost non-existent.

That instantly changed as a blue light came into her view.

"HAAAAAAAAAA!"

The orb exploded directly upon her and turned into a small beam, blasting the masked woman off into the direction of the village as it tore through the myriad of trees that dared block the beam's path. There was no stopping of it as the martial focused his everything into this one attack, not restraining an ounce of his strength.

Goku clenched his teeth as he concentrated his arms even harder, boosting the power of the beam even further. He could feel his arms starting to fail him, but he didn't let up as the beam continued to illuminate as brightly as ever.

It finally ended as the beam impacted onto the ground of the village, or so the martial artist figured. He honestly hoped he fired off in the right direction, because his sore body was already taking a lot of toll on him. He then slowly walked across the clear path he himself had created, trying to get back to Sakurasō as fast as he could.

* * *

None of the bandits nor even team CFVY could see it coming, for they were too focused on their own battles. However, they were immediately made aware of it as the entire village shook in its entirety, prompting many of them to turn towards the source.

A portion of the land exploded, causing piles of dirt to scatter around the village, falling unlike that of rain.

They were all bewildered with what was occurring right before them, all stunned on the spot as various thoughts flooded each and every one of their minds.

They had a vivid idea of the cause of the impact, seeing as both sides knew the strength of the individuals involved.

The question was, who was the sender and more importantly, the receiver of such an attack?

They quickly got their answer as a lone individual came out from the woods, albeit looking very frail at the moment as he stepped into the grounds of the village.

"Hehe...maybe I overdone it a bit," Goku weakly voiced out, clearly exhausted from the looks of it.

He didn't expect his Kamehameha to actually hit this far, nor cause the scene before him for that matter. While everything else had returned to normal, the site of impact was still obscured by clouds of dust surrounding it. However, it looked like it will subside soon enough if he waited a bit longer.

He just had to see what happened to his opponent. Although the attack earlier was everything he got, he wanted to make sure she was actually beaten before celebrating just yet as his opponent this time around was the toughest one yet, so a little look over the condition of his opponent wouldn't hurt.

"Goku! You're safe!" Yatsuhashi cheered happily, thankful to see his comrade relatively fine.

Fox was also relief the faunus was unharmed, though only showed it inwardly.

Coco on the other hand, turned towards her opponent and decided to taunt the woman.

"So what now? Looks like your leader got beaten, got any backup plans?" Coco asked with a confident grin on her, believing that their leader was taken down.

The woman was initially impassive to her question, but slowly her lips formed a scorn as she shot back at Coco.

"Don't be ridiculous. Our leader would never lose, no matter what."

Coco didn't know if the woman was crazy or just confident, but she sincerely hoped it was the former.

The faunus looked on while the dust subsided little by little, a spark of red flashed for a instance but disappear just as quickly as it appeared.

Gradually, a pungent smell was becoming more prevalent as time went on, which elicited a disgusted response from the faunus. Still, he had no time to ponder on the matter as a more pressing one came into view.

Goku saw the silhouette of a figure standing tall amidst the clouds of dust, and just from that alone he could tell his opponent was still fit for combat.

The figure stepped out of the layer, but the person's current appearance completely took the martial artist by surprise.

The Grimm mask that she had worn from the moment they met...was now completely gone, and was replaced by an appearance Goku was all too accustomed to.

She looked just like Yang!

Barring a few details such as her hair colour and age, Goku could have sworn he was looking at a body double. Perhaps this person was a Grimm after all, like the one he fought during semester break or maybe even Yang herself?

"Yang!? No wait...Yang doesn't use a sword so there's no way you're her...or are you?" Goku asked, confusion in his tone as he pointed his index finger at her.

She didn't answer. Instead, she charged straight towards the faunus and quickly closed the gap between them.

Goku could do nothing but let out a half-hearted laughter at the blur rushing towards him.

Before he knew it, a sharp pain spread across his arm as the woman inserted her blade into his right shoulder as the tip of the blade cut stabbed through it.

"Argh."

Goku let out a painful groan, unable to restrain the pain permeating through his body. The woman wasn't done just yet as she kicked him in the gut, separating the blade from his flesh as he spiralled into the air.

Noticing this, Coco gave a command to her teammate as she started running towards Goku, followed by the other two.

"Yatsuhashi! Fox!"

"Understood."

Yatsuhashi stopped as he placed the broadsword over his shoulder, awaiting for his teammate's next move.

Fox backflipped onto the giant's weapon, steadying himself carefully as he locked onto Goku's trajectory.

Fox then nodded his head, signalling to Yatsuhashi that he was ready. Noticing his signal, Yatsuhashi swung his broadsword hard as it blasted Fox into the air.

Fox was able to catch the faunus just in time, and grabbed hold of him tightly as they both crashed onto the ground.

Unfortunately, eventhough he was able to catch Goku in time, the faunus did not seemed to be conscious at the moment.

Goku's condition at the moment was bad...really bad. Inspecting his right shoulder, it seemed to him that blood was trickling across it and judging from the wounds, it was not stopping.

Once Coco and Yatsuhashi made it to his side, the two took their guard up as the bandits slowly encircled them. The bandits were not attacking them but were cautiously observing them instead.

"So...how is it?" Coco questioned, pointing her minigun at the bandits that were closing in.

"Bad."

"Damn...and from the looks of it, he's out of aura. Plus, we don't exactly have medical supplies with us at the moment..."

"Perhaps there is some within the village," Yatsuhashi suggested.

"That's our best bet. If that's the case...we'll just have to plough through these guys, not that it's going to be hard right you two?" Coco said haughtily, though her tone faltered slightly as she said those words.

The two nodded at their leader's words. Inwardly however, the three knew this was going to be a hard struggle if they wanted to get out of this unscathed, but was nonetheless willing to go through with it.

The three's attention was turned towards the leader as she stepped out from the group.

She looked towards team CFVY for a moment, especially to the unconscious faunus before snapping back towards her group.

"We're leaving."

It came as a surprise to all of them, even the members of her own group…except for one. The woman that looked to be her right hand answered for her group as she spoke.

"Very well. We shall all leave immediately."

There was no hesitation in her voice as she said those words. She then gestured the other bandits, prompting them to gather around their leader but never leaving their eyes off the young huntsmen-in-training.

"Thank you Vernal."

Just as the leader was about to turn, Coco decided to interject at the matter as she found the abrupt change to be too bizarre even for her.

"Hey...just what exactly are you playing here?" Coco asked warily, though curious she was not letting her guard down.

"...You can ask the fool—" the leader stated as she pointed her blade towards the faunus.

"—just what exactly laid underneath the hole he dug up," she continued on, swinging her blade towards the direction of her fall.

"What exactly are you—"

She stopped and saw what the woman was referring to. There was a gaping hole formed just around the site of impact, a size that could easily fill tens of men within it.

However, what the bandit leader said still made no sense to any of them.

"...So? It's just crater from the blast. About as normal as can be for this guy in particular," Coco said dryly, trying to sound assured.

"It's what inside it. Judging from what the fool told me, you four are from the Academy. Tell me, what's your objective coming to a remote village like this again?"

She didn't answer the woman.

"And if you haven't noticed the awful stench that's slowly spreading around here, then I don't know what to tell you."

They all took a quick sniff of the air, and it was true. There was indeed an awful stench lingering in the air, something that was not noticeable...until now.

Coco realized what had occurred to the residents of this village and the huntsmen-in-training. If what the woman said was true, then they were too late to save any of them.

She didn't want to jump to any conclusions just yet. She couldn't just take the words of a bandit so easily, for she herself need to personally witness what is at the bottom of this pit.

"What then? You're telling me you guys did it? Although I don't get why you would run away instead of just silencing us, especially in the middle of nowhere."

"If you still can't see it, then you're more idiotic than the fool."

"I'm...not a fool. My name's...Goku," the martial artist corrected, having finally woken up.

"Goku, you're awake! My friend, please stay still as you are in no condition to move," Yatsuhashi blurted out.

"I'll be fine. But that person... who looks like Yang is right, it wasn't them that did it."

"How exactly can you tell?" Coco questioned, not trusting of them.

"Because she... didn't have that smell that's just everywhere right now."

At first, he wasn't so sure if these guys had anything to do with it but now that he had a whiff of the village and compared it to hers, it sealed the deal for him. However, whether or not they knew about this matter was another matter entirely.

"Goku...you know she could have just wash it off right?" she reasoned, seeing as no person would be as dumb as leave the stench of blood around their person.

"No...it's different. I can tell the smell before just now was similar but—"

Having enough of this conversation, the bandit decided to cut in as she and her tribe needed to flee as quick as possible before 'that' thing will arrive.

"If you're done, we'll be taking our leav—"

The bandit leader didn't continue as a growling noise suddenly reverberated throughout the village, alarming every one of them to the sound.

They all turned, not daring to make even the tiniest of noise. That was because within the woods, two red beading eyes were staring directly at them from afar, its body entirely made out of darkness.

"Tch. Too late."

Just as the woman said so, the being sprung out from the forest, becoming a giant blur as it headed straight for them.

In a few moments, chaos would ensue...for both parties.


End file.
